UPDATE: According to a report from Vanity Fair, Favreau does voice the character in question. Original story follows below.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau is no stranger to making appearances in films he directs and has also voiced various characters in the Star Wars saga, with the latest episode of the live-action series having fans wondering if he made an uncredited cameo appearance in the Disney+ series. Favreau previously voiced Rio in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Pre Vizsla in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which could have led to the perfect opportunity to lend his voice, physicality, or even both to a key sequence in Episode Three of the series in a subtle way.
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WARNING: Spoilers below for Star Wars: The Mandalorian
At one point in the new episode, our main character (Pedro Pascal) goes to the Mandalorian enclave to have a new set of armor created, only for his fellow Mandalorians to wonder where he got so much beskar steel. One particularly large Mandalorian began to intimidate the main character, with fans noticing the character’s voice and stature had a resemblance to Favreau.
As fans looked in the credits for the episode in hopes of identifying the character, there were no direct clues as to the name of the figure, but one interesting credit stood out to some audiences: “Double – Paz Vizla.” Stunt performer Tait Fletcher is credited with the role, while IMDb lists Fletcher’s involvement in the episode as “Heavy Mando Infantry.” This would be an apt description for the character, though only being specified as a “double” would lead us to believe someone else played the character in less physical scenes.
The complicated part of the formula is that, with the Mandalorians never removing their helmets, it’s possible for any figure to play the characters and only require another actor to lend them their voice. Emily Swallow, however, is credited as playing the “Armorer” in the series, despite fans only hearing her voice while seeing a fully-armored character, seemingly confirming she also performs the character physically.
In this regard, it’s possible that Favreau didn’t credit himself as playing Paz Vizla in the episode. Dave Filoni, who created Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, voiced a droid in the latter series, with the Rebels credits claiming Chopper was played by “Himself.” It wasn’t until the show’s series finale that the credits confirmed Filoni brought Chopper to life, so with Filoni making his live-action directing debut on Mandalorian, we wouldn’t be surprised if Favreau took a page from his colleague’s playbook in how to credit himself.
Adding even more speculation to the character’s identity is that, in Clone Wars, Favreau voiced a Mandalorian with the last name “Vizsla.” The original concept art for that character spelled the last name “Visla,” so while the last names don’t exactly align, it’s possible this was an intentional misdirect on the part of Favreau.
With five more episodes to go in Season One, fans will be standing by to see if we learn the answer to the mystery.
New episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian debut Fridays on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.
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