The Mandalorian’s Bill Burr Reveals How He Landed His Star Wars Role

There have already been a lot of things to love about Star Wars: The Mandalorian, with the first two seasons of the Disney+ series introducing some surprising new cast members and aspects of lore. Among them is comedian Bill Burr, who has played Migs Mayfield across two episodes of the series thus far, and made a memorable impression on viewers along the way. In a recent interview on the Your Mom’s House Podcast, Burr spoke about the experience of working on the Star Wars series, and revealed how he got hired for the job despite not really being a fan of the franchise.

“I went to Mike Binder’s birthday party and Jon was there,” Burr expllained. “He said, ‘Hey, we’re writing this thing and we kind of have you in mind, you wanna do it?’ And I was like ‘well, I don’t know Jon. I’ve teased Star Wars people a lot.’ And he goes, ‘I know I listen to the podcast, I think it would be funny if you got in it.’”

Burr told a version of the same story while appearing on an episode of The Rich Eisen Show, revealing that Favreau had to convince him to take the job.

“I’ve never been a sci-fi [guy]. I like Blade Runner. There was a movie that Sam Rockwell did called Moon. I was never into the Star Wars thing, by the time I saw it I was too old, Ewoks and stuff. I wanted to see Fast Times At Ridgemont High, so I missed the boat,” Burr explained at the time. “I ran into Jon somewhere, hanging with Mike Binder. I should start giving that guy a commission. [Jon Favreau says to Bill] ‘I’m doing this Star Wars thing do you want to do something?’ and I’m like ‘I don’t know, I’m kind of always making fun of it.’ And he goes ‘I think it would be funny, I think your fans would get a kick out of the fact you’re in it.’ And I went in there and they’re shooting it like a Spaghetti Western and I was like immediately so psyched to be apart of it.”

Burr has previously talked about his familiarity — or lack thereof — of the Star Wars universse, even revealing on his podcast earlier this year that he had yet to finish watching the first season of The Mandalorian.

“Uh, I haven’t really watched it,” Burr admitted with a laugh back in January. “I was hoping you weren’t gonna ask me that. It’s my list of sh-t to watch. I was gonna try, I was gonna try! I know, I’m embarrassed now. I’m gonna watch it. I watched most of the first season – I just, you know, it came out during the holidays.”

“You got a guy who’s a huge fan of it who knows how to write and direct,” Burr said about Favreau. “He gets to make it the way he sort of envisions it and, amazingly, how he sees it is how a lot of the Star Wars fans wanted to see it, I guess.”

The first two seasons of Star Wars: The Mandalorian are now available to stream exclusively on Disney+. Season 3 of the series is expected to debut at a later date.