Star Wars fans are mere weeks away from the highly-anticipated premiere of The Book of Boba Fett, which was teased in the Season 2 finale of Star Wars: The Mandalorian last year. The new series will see Temuera Morrison returning as Boba Fett and Ming-Na Wen coming back as Fennec Shand. When Wen originally appeared in the franchise during The Mandalorian‘s first season, her fate was left up in the air. During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the star joked about convincing Dave Filoni to bring her back.
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“It’s just blind trust with Disney and everyone at this point,” Wen said with a laugh. “I’ve been with them for so long that I just figure I’m being taken care of.” Wen and Filoni both went to the same Pittsburgh high school, so she used that to get her back into the fold. “I kept joking, ‘You can’t kill an alum, dude!’” Wen shared. “‘C’mon, we’ve got to figure out something here. There’s gotta be nepotism. We’re both Yinzers!’”
However, some folks took that quote a little too seriously, so Wen made sure to clarify her statement on Twitter. “‘Convinced’ is not the correct word here. It gives me power I do not have. I merely suggested to Dave jokingly that Fennec survives. I was very surprised and delighted when Fennec came back to life for #TheMandalorian S2. This decision was made by Dave, Jon & Lucasfilm,” Wen clarified. You can view that tweet below:
Earlier this year, ComicBook.com also spoke with Wen about her return to Star Wars and her hometown connection to Filoni.
“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.”
The Book of Boba Fett premieres on Disney+ on December 29th.
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