Star Wars: The Mandalorian's Emily Swallow on Bringing The Armorer to Life

Like most other Star Wars projects over the years, the first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian was absolutely filled with scene-stealing side characters. Baby Yoda is obviously the most notable of these characters, becoming a worldwide phenomenon soon after the Season 1 premiere back in November, but fans still fell in love with a slew of others in the series like Cara Dune, Kuiil, and IG-11. When it comes to the most mysterious and intriguing of these characters, however, none of them compare to The Armorer, the presumptive leader of the Mandalorians and all-around badass.

The spiked golden helmet and red armor was enough to get people invested in the Armorer from her first appearance, but the character was given plenty of depth as the season went on and was ultimately set up for a potentially important role in future installments. Like the titular character in the series, played by Pedro Pascal, the Armorer never takes off her helmet, so you may not know that it was Supernatural actress Emily Swallow bringing the character to life.

ComicBook.com recently spoke to Swallow about her role in the first season of The Mandalorian, confirming that she was not only providing the voice for the Armorer, but she was in the suit the entire time as well.

"Oh, it's all me," Swallow explained. She's in the Armorer suit in every scene where the character appears, save for the one major fight sequence in the Season 1 finale. "I mean, I definitely have to give credit where credit is due with that unbelievable fight in the last episode. That is all me, because I did not have the years of martial arts training required to do that, but I did what I could when I got that script and saw that there was this intense fight. I talked to our fight coordinator and said, 'I'm willing to train and try to do as much of it as I can.' And he said, "That's awesome. You would have to train for years to be able to do all of it.'"

Swallow wasn't the one actually throwing the punches in that season finale fight, but she did train hard in the weeks leading up to shooting in order to be in the suit for the transitions and the rest of the scene.

"I did take the couple of weeks that I had between that conversation and when we were shooting it to work with somebody on a martial art form called Kali, which was the inspiration for a lot of the fights," she told us. "So I did what I could to help the transitions and stuff, but that the bulk of it is somebody who is far more skilled than I."

As you can imagine, it takes quite a few stunt performers to bring a show like The Mandalorian to life, so there are plenty of folks who helped coordinate and pull of the fight between the Armorer and the Stormtroopers. However, stunt performer Lauren Mary Kim is the one credited as the Armorer's double.

What did you think of the first season of The Mandalorian? Do you hope to see the Armorer back in Season 2? Let us know in the comments!