The Mandalorian Reveals That A Pivotal Season 3 Character Was Originally Supposed to Die

The Mandalorian Season 3 actually surprised a lot of fans by being more hopeful with its outcome than anyone could've imagined. Every one of the heroes survived the Battle to retake Mandalore from Moff Gideon – and despite so many fan theories that there would be twisted betrayal within the ranks of the Mandalorians fighting alongside Din Djarin and Grogu, everyone stayed loyal. 

As you can see in the video interview below with our ComicBook Nation podcast, it definitely looked like one Star Wars character, Axe Woves, was going to have some kind of drastic turn in his character. The Mandalorian Season 3 finale certainly drew that theory out until the very last possible second, as Woves heroically left the battlefield on Mandalore to retake the squad's mothership in orbit from Gideon's forces. In the end, Axe Woves turned the ship into a Kamikaze missile that took out Moff Gideon and his secret base on Mandalore, while Axe escaped at the last second by jetpacking out of the cockpit. 

Axe Woves Was Supposed to Die

Funny enough, the new Disney Gallery / Star Wars: The Mandalorian "Making of Season 3" docuseries episode reveals that Axe Woves was indeed intended to die – just not when a lot of Star Wars fans thought he would! 

In one segment of the making-of documentary, The Mandalorian director Bryce Dallas Howard talks about the Season 3 duel between Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), over leadership of the Nite Owls group. During that recap of making the scene, Howard reveals that Axe Woves' debut in her Season 2 episode, "Chapter 11: The Heiress" was intended to be a one-and-done for the character, who would've died in that same episode. The difference-maker was Simon Kassianides, who impressed Howard and other makers of The Mandalorian, to the point they kept Axe Woves in the character roster. 

"In the first season that he was in, in my episode, his character Axe Woves was originally written to die," Bryce Dallas-Howard explains. "And I've gotta say this, like, Simon is so wonderful. Part of the reason why we want to keep him around is because he's so great. 

For his part, Kassianides has maintained that he's as surprised as anyone that Axe Woves' story has gone on this long: "I had no idea I'd be back. And not only am I back, but I've come back to this arc. That just knocks my socks off."

Against the odds, Axe has now, again, survived what looked like a pretty likely end for his story in The Mandalorian Season 3. It will be interesting to see where the character goes from here. Star Wars has a long and proud tradition of turning even bit characters into their own icons. 

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3 are now streaming on Disney+. As is the Disney Gallery | Star Wars: The Mandalorian docuseries.