The Mandalorian Season 2: Who Is Timothy Olyphant's Character?
Last week, Star Wars fans got a veritable bounty of casting information regarding the hotly anticipated second season of Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian. Since the announcement, much of the focus has been on the live-action return of fan favorite characters Boba Fett, who will be played by Jango Fett actor Temuera Morrison, and Ahsoka Tano, who will be played by Hollywood A-lister Rosario Dawson. While the confirmation that both characters will appear on season 2 of The Mandalorian is certainly worthy of all the hype, Morrison and Dawson's casting may have overshadowed the addition of Timothy Olyphant to the gritty space western.
To be fair, Morrison and Dawson will be portraying two of the most mythologized characters in the Star Wars canon, whereas Olyphant's announcement didn't even come with a specific character formally attached. It's easy to start picturing Morrison back inside a suit of Mandalorian armor, or Dawson done up as a Togruta Jedi. It's more difficult to get excited about the guy from Deadwood and Justified playing a character-to-be-named-later.
Perhaps realizing that the oversight might have tamped down the Olyphant excitement, several outlets are now reporting a few details about the actor's mysterious character. Unlike Morrison and Dawson, who will be stepping into well-established roles, Olyphant will be playing a minor character from the Expanded Universe novels who goes by the name Cobb Vanth. Details about Vanth are currently scarce, but here's everything we know.
What do we know about Cobb Vanth joining The Mandalorian season 2?
According to Slashfilm, Olyphant was seen on the set of The Mandalorian wearing Boba Fett's iconic armor. This seems odd, since Morrison has been confirmed in the role of Fett. What's Olyphant doing in his outfit? For answers, we must turn to the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
In Chuck Wendig's novel Aftermath, released as part of the "Road to The Force Awakens" initiative, Cobb Vanth is the sheriff of the Tatooine settlement of Freetown. In the books, he wears a scavenged set of Mandalorian armor that he bought from Jawas who salvaged the wreckage of Jabba's sail barge, that hovering pleasure vessel that Luke and Leia heroically demolished in Return of the Jedi.
Fans will surely remember that bounty hunter extraordinaire Boba Fett was unceremoniously dumped into the Sarlacc Pit during the battle that saw the demise of Jabba and his barge'. Since Mandalorian armor is pretty rare in the Star Wars universe, the assumption is that the Jawas salvaged the very same set that Fett was wearing when he began the 1000-year process of being digested by a Sarlacc. With both Fett and Vanth set to appear on the upcoming season of The Mandalorian, expect the ownership of this armor to become a serious point of contention. And let's not forget that mysterious, spur-jangling figure who appeared in the desert during the first season. Could that be Vanth?
For confirmation that all this drama is headed Mando's way, we'll just have to wait until the next set of episodes hits Disney+ later this year.