Star Wars: The Mandalorian’s Katee Sackhoff Addresses Response to All-Female Team-Up in Season 2 Finale

The Mandalorian‘s season finale assembled a roster of great female characters who lead a charge against Moff Gideon and his army, including Katee Sackhoff‘s Bo-Katan at the front of the pack. The reaction to the group of women delivering such entertaining action sequences was overwhelmingly positive and often saw viewers pointing out the fact that it was a group of women who were doing this work. As the movie and TV landscape continues to get more inclusive and diverse in this regard, Sackhoff has opened up about why the scenes worked so well.

“The reason why that scene at the end of Mandalorian worked was they didn’t talk about the fact that they were women,” Sackhoff told Looper. “They were just the best people for the job and they were there. And they did it, and they succeeded. We didn’t stop to be like, ‘Female power, woo-hoo! You take the lead because you’re the prettiest!’ You know what I mean? This was just the crew that was available.”

Sackhoff’s sci-fi and action resumé goes back to Battlestar Galactica. In the years since her work on that show, she has seen a change within the industry in regards to how women are treated and their characters are delivered.

“I think that what’s changed, not only the genre but in our industry, is that we don’t feel like we have to quantify a female’s existence anymore by saying, ‘Well, she’s a woman, she’s a ‘strong female character,’” Sackhoff said. “We don’t have to do that anymore. Now, it’s just like, ‘Isn’t that awesome to watch? Holy crap, that was amazing.’ That’s not to take away from and negate the fact that they’re obviously women. I think that’s what’s changed the most in the industry — we have so many amazing women to watch.”

Sackhoff cites the award-winning Nomadland of a prime example in how to showcase strong female characters without the script needing expoitional dialogue to acknowledge as much. Look at Nomadland. Look at Frances McDormand,” she said. “I mean, that performance, that is a strong woman. They never talk about the fact that it’s unsafe for her to be living this life because she’s a woman. They don’t talk about it. They show the difficulties for everyone living this life, men and women. That was so beautiful to me because it’s like I think it allows us as viewers to really just get lost in something and not go, ‘Oh, there’s the explanation there.’”

Are you hoping to see more from Bo-Katan, Koska Reeves, and the other awesome characters on The Mandalorian in Season 3? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram!