‘Star Wars’ TV Show ‘The Mandalorian’ Sees Taika Waititi As A Droid
Taika Waititi, the director of Thor: Ragnarok, is one of the confirmed directors for the latest Star Wars live action TV show, The Mandalorian. As The Inquisitr previously reported, the first ever Star Wars show sees a revolving door of talented directors for its episodes, such as Jon Favreau, Bryce Dallas Howard, Deborah Chow, Rick Famuyiwa, and Waititi himself. The series also sees the live-action directorial debut of the writer and showrunner of the Star Wars animated series, Dave Filoni. A new post on Instagram from the show’s writer and producer Jon Favreau, however, shows that Waititi is pulling double duty playing a droid in The Mandalorian.
Favreau’s post on his Instagram account shows Waititi doing voice-over work, with a droid on a screen. The droid in question is IG-88, a bounty hunter droid that first made its appearance in the Star Wars universe during the events of Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
IG-88 is a droid that answers Darth Vader’s bounty on the Millennium Falcon. The war-torn droid since then has become a fan-favorite character, and his appearance in The Mandalorian makes complete sense, given the show is about another famous Star Wars bounty hunter. More about IG-88 can be found on this StarWars.com story.
“Many people in the galaxy fear droids, what with the memories of the Clone Wars still fresh in their minds. Far more terrifying than battle droids were assassin droids, independently programmed mechanical killers that had no masters. IG-88 is a battered chrome war droid who has become a bounty hunter and answered Darth Vader’s call to capture the Millennium Falcon during the events surrounding the Battle of Hoth.”
It’s unclear whether Waititi will be voicing the droid as a one-off, or if he will be the voice for the character throughout the first season. As The Inquisitr previously reported, Season 1 of The Mandalorian has wrapped filming, so the voice work seems to be happening as part of the post-production work.
The post shows Waititi in front of a few microphones, recording some dialogue, with a screen showing an image of the IG-88, with presumably the Skywalker watermark as well as the famous bounty hunter helmet, possibly to dress up the picture. Favreau shared the picture with no quote, as it pretty much speaks for itself.
Waititi is no stranger to doing voice-over work for non-human or entirely CGI characters. The writer-director was the voice of Korg in Thor: Ragnarok, who stole the show with his comic relief.
The Mandalorian is about the story of bounty hunter Boba Fett, who was himself a Mandalorian, a race within the Star Wars universe. The show looks to expand and build on the Star Wars world with new stories and new characters that may or may not tie in with the rest of the existing movies.
The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Omid Abtahi, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Werner Herzog, Nick Nolte, and Carl Weathers.
No release date has been set for The Mandalorian.
