Star Wars: Ming-Na Wen Praises Bryce Dallas Howard's Directing on The Book of Boba Fett

By Jamie Jirak

The fifth episode of The Book of Boba Fett, "The Return of The Mandalorian," was released on Disney+ today and fans are freaking out about the show's long-rumored The Mandalorian crossover. The episode was directed by Jurassic World star, Bryce Dallas Howard, who was the perfect person to bring Mando into the Boba Fett fold. Previously, Howard helmed "Chapter 4: Sanctuary" and "Chapter 11: The Heiress" of The Mandalorian, and she's getting high praise for her first episode of The Book of Boba Fett. In fact, Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shand) took to Twitter today to celebrate Howard's work.

"BRYCE!!! Such a cinematic & magnificient chapter! You are a remarkable director! Like #FennecShand, you don't miss! 👏🏼👏🏼👍🏼👍🏼🔥🔥🔥Chapter 5 streaming now," Wen wrote. You can check out her post below:

Back when Howard helmed "The Heiress" for The Mandalorian, she talked about directing the live-action debut of Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze, a character Sackhoff voiced in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Digital Spy spoke with Howard after the episode aired, and asked her about bridging the animated shows with the live-action ones.

"I think I would have had it not been for Katee Sackhoff playing Bo-Katan, or if Dave Filoni wasn't there," Howard explained. "But because Dave Filoni was there, and Katee had played Bo for a decade – for me, it was basically about ensuring Katee's vision and Filoni's vision, along with Jon Favreau's vision… how can I facilitate that?"

"That was my primary focus, rather than being like, 'I have a perspective on The Clone Wars, and here's that perspective.' There are folks who have spent more time on this and have inhabited these characters in this world," she continued. "So that was the fun of it for me. It was about getting all the experts in the room together, and being like, 'I think this is the story you're telling. Does that sound right?' And they're like, 'Yeah.' That's more my role."

As for Wen, the Agents of SHIELD alum made her Star Wars debut in The Mandalorian's first season, but her fate was originally left up in the air. During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the star joked about convincing Dave Filoni to bring her back. 

"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!'"

The first five episodes of The Book of Boba Fett are now streaming on Disney+.

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