The rightful heir to the throne of the planet Mandalore made her live-action debut in season two of The Mandalorian, fighting multiple times alongside our hero, Din Djarin. But don’t think that means Bo-Katan Kryze is a hero, even according to the actor who plays her, Katee Sackhoff.
Sackhoff, who’s been playing the character for a full decade since she debuted in the Clone Wars cartoon back in 2011, was interviewed by Polygon at Wintercon and she dropped some reminders that Bo-Katan has a checkered past…and potentially a checkered future. “For anyone who hasn’t seen Clone Wars, Bo-Katan didn’t necessarily start out on the right side of things. She thought that she was, but she is not completely good in this story, and she has had some nefarious intentions, potentially, at one point,” she said. “What I loved about the way that she was portrayed in [The Mandalorian] was that you don’t really know what she’s thinking, or where she lands, or if you’re supposed to like her or trust her.”
[referenced id=”1530779″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/11/the-mandalor-mandalore-needs/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/19/vuprteizje1pyxalrdjt-300×124.png” title=”The Mand’alor Mandalore Needs” excerpt=”The arrival of Bo-Katan Kryze on The Mandalorian is perhaps an example of Star Wars fanservice done most right by the show: without knowing who she was, Bo-Katan could easily be read by the audience as a new character, like the Armorer and Din Djarin himself. But for those who…”]
If you’ve seen The Clone Wars, you know Bo-Katan was a member of a terrorist group called Death Watch (the same group she would later describe as a “cult” to Din Djarin, who himself was raised by the Watch), which was trying to overthrow Mandalore’s pacifist government — headed up by Bo-Katan’s own sister, Satine. She was even along for the ride when Death Watch teamed up with Darth Maul and his (ludicrously named, even for Star Wars) brother Savage Opress to stage their coup. Afterward, the Sith pretty much instantly betrayed the Death Watch, forcing Bo-Katan to ask the Republic to help her re-overthrow Mandalore’s new leadership.
However, if you only know her from The Mandalorian, you’d be forgiven for thinking Bo-Katan is one of the good guys. Even despite the tension of who gets to wield the Darksaber at the end of season two, she’s introduced as trying to reclaim the Darksaber and free her ancestral home after the Empire staged “The Great Purge” that people like Din believe took out most Mandalorians. It all sounds very noble. And when Din needs help rescuing Grogu, née Baby Yoda, Bo-Katan is there to help (albeit on her own terms).
But it sounds like The Mandalorian’s next season could end the positive relationship between the two. Sackhoff said, “At the end of season two, we are in a position where we’ve set ourselves up with our hero to potentially be in conflict. You don’t quite know if you’re supposed to root for her or not yet, and I love that. I love that grey area, because she’s not so black and white.”
With the miraculous way Disney manages to keep a lid on all Mandalorian production intel, we won’t know which way to root for her for quite some time — certainly not until the show eventually returns after The Book of Boba Fett releases later this year. And maybe not even then.