Katee Sackhoff Shocked by Fan Reaction to Her The Mandalorian Character: “It’s a Dream Come True”

The fifth episode of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, “Chapter 21: The Pirate,” was a big one for Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) who was instructed by The Armorer (Emily Swallow) to remove her helmet in order to “walk both worlds” and help unite the different Mandalorian clans. Bo-Katan has been at a crossroads this season after her plans to restore herself as the rightful ruler of Mandalore were thwarted when Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) ended up with the Darksaber. It was revealed that she has given up on her quest, but now it looks like she has a new purpose, which fans seem to be enjoying. In fact, Sackhoff recently had a chat with ComicBook.com‘s Chris Killian during Megacon Orlando, and talked about the fan response to Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian. 

“I don’t want to talk too much about how I feel about it, because I find that a lot of times when I talk about how I feel about something, it does tend to, you know, put some spoilers out there and I really try to protect those, because I love being surprised and I think in the age of social media, we so rarely get surprised by things,” Sackhoff explained. 

She continued, “I think that the biggest thing that’s shocked me about this entire season is actually just like the fan reaction. You know, I don’t think that I’ve ever played a character that has been universally loved or at least tolerated … I haven’t seen any, like, genuine hate for her yet. You know, if somebody hasn’t watched the season and they’re talking about, you know, Clone Wars or Rebels, of course, there’s going to be some hate. But, I don’t know … the fact that she’s been embraced so much is quite amazing. I love it. It’s, you know, dreams come true kind of stuff.” 

Does Katee Sackhoff Do Her Own Stunts?

Long before she was Bo-Katan, Sackhoff played Kara Thrace/Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica from 2004 to 2009. However, things were a bit different for Sackhoff back then. In a recent interview with StarWars.com, the actor explained how it was hard to find body doubles to match her during the BSG days. While things have changed during The Mandalorian, there is still one stunt Sackhoff likes to do herself. 

“When I started in this industry, it was really hard to find doubles to match me,” Sackhoff explained. “You know, I was always just slightly bigger than most of the women around that were actors at the time and the stunt doubles, they just couldn’t find anyone. I was doubled by a man at one point … It was literally me doing my own stunts because the match was not perfect, and I wanted it to look believable.”

Sackhoff added, “I’ve realized that, number one, I don’t bounce back as well as I used to … But also, I think that if I take my ego out of it and, and acknowledge that we are trying to create the best character and the most realistic, amazing, crazy-tough woman in the world, in this character… I can’t do all of that and that would be egotistical to think that I can. So, there were a few different women in this suit this year, and every one of them served a phenomenal purpose to make Bo as fierce as possible … I have a wicked knee slide! Every once in a while, when I can do a knee slide, I definitely do a knee slide.”

The first five episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian‘s third season are streaming on Disney+.