Star Wars: The Mandalorian Included Surprise Cameo From Battlefront 2 Star You Missed

The latest episode of Star Wars: The Mandalorian on Disney+ was packed with a ton of references, Easter eggs, and characters from many fan-favorite shows showing up to hang with Din Djarin and Baby Yoda. And while fans were buzzing about Katee Sackhoff’s live-action debut as The Clone Wars character Bo-Katan Kryze (and name-dropping Ahsoka Tano, no less!), there was also a little-known cameo made by Star Wars: Battlefront II star Janina Gavankar. No, the Morning Show and True Blood actress was not playing her Inferno Squad leader Iden Versio, but instead a very surprising alien with a strange talent.

IGN reported this week that Gavankar worked as the second puppeteer on the nostrils of the Mon Calamari featured in the episode. Gavankar shared the article on Twitter, adding, “Here’s my delightful @themandalorian story. TDLR: @FrankIppolito asked me to puppeteer nostrils.” You can check out the tweet below:

“There is a Mon Calamari who puts their hands on their hips. That’s Frank Ippolito who’s inside that rig. He made that headpiece and it takes two puppeteers to animate it,” Gavankar told IGN. “And they needed a second puppeteer to just handle the nostrils of this character. And [Ippolito] called me and he said, ‘Do you want to come puppeteer the nostrils of this Mon Calamari?’ And I said ‘f*ck yes.’”

Gavankar wasn’t the only easter egg in the latest episode of the show. “Chapter 11” was helmed by Bryce Dallas Howard who paid tribute to her father’s film Apollo 13. You can check out a comparison of her directing and Ron Howard’s here.

Season Two of The Mandalorian has some exciting directors on the roster. In addition to Howard, returning directors include Rick Famuyiwa and Dave Filoni. First-timers for the show include Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) and Peyton Reed (Ant-Man), who directed last week’s episode. We are also stoked for next week’s ep, which was directed by Carl Weathers, who plays Greef Karga on the series. When asked to share what he’s most excited about for Season Two, Weathers told ET Canada, “Well, of course, the episode I directed! [Laughs] The episode I directed, in our schedule, was Episode 4.”

Star Wars: The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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