Star Wars: The Mandalorian’s Ming-Na Wen Didn’t Know She Would Return After Season 1

Ming-Na Wen first joined the world of Star Wars during an episode of Star Wars: The Mandalorian in the show’s first season. Fans waited a year to find out if her character had survived, and it ended up being worth the wait. Not only did Wen return for season two, but she also reprised her role in animated form in Star Wars: The Bad Batch and recently wrapped filming the Mandalorian spin-off, The Book of Boba Fett. ComicBook.com recently had the chance to chat with Wen and she revealed she had no idea she would end up returning in such a big way.

“Oh gosh, no, no, no,” Wen replied when we asked if she knew she was coming back during season one. “I mean the determining factor might have been several things, you know, one, I looked really cool in the outfit [laughs]. I really felt like, because I knew this world so much that when this character was presented to me and I did a lot of research, I took inspiration from her name, you know, worked on the hair design with Maria, and then just clicked with Dave [Filoni] when he was directing and we got to know each other.”

Wen added, “We found out that we both grew up in the same neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in this suburban town called Mount Lebanon and went to the same high school.” She continued, “Such a small, small world. Imagine two nerdy, geeky kids, you know from Mt. Lebanon High suddenly fulfilling their dreams and working in Star Wars, it’s such a great story. So I had no idea.”

“I did of course try really hard,” Wen added with a laugh. “You know to suggest that she’s only seriously injured, but I had no idea Boba Fett was going to come and save her. That blew me away. They didn’t even tell me … to wait and find out everything was just this wondrous, magical surprises, like winning the golden ticket.”

Wen expressed a similar sentiment during a round table for SW Holocron.

“I had no idea [of the depth of my role], but, boy, am I happy it happened the way it happened,” Wen shared. “When Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni offered me this role, I was really excited, because my entire life has been trying to manifest this moment when I get to be a part of a Star Wars project, but when I read the script and she dies I was like, ‘…Oh.’ [Laughs]. That’s kind of sad. So, I wasn’t sure. But you realize, this may be my only opportunity so I gotta check this off my bucket list. And of course talking with Jon and Dave, it’s three people talking the same language, because we all love Star Wars so much.”

You can check out our full interview with Wen at the top of the page.

The first nine episodes of Star Wars: The Bad Batch are currently streaming on Disney+ with the next episode dropping on Friday, July 2nd.