The Mandalorian finally returned to our TV screens last weekend, bringing a significant helping of live-action Star Wars content to Disney+ subscribers. The Season 2 premiere, titled “The Marshall”, definitely shattered fans’ expectations, between its action, story, and introduction of characters from the larger Star Wars universe. Now that Season 2 is officially in full swing, the questions surrounding The Mandalorian have only continued to grow, especially when it comes to scenes that were teased in the season’s promotional material. Among those was the first appearance of a character portrayed by WWE superstar Sasha Banks, who could briefly be seen in one of the season’s new trailers.
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While Banks’ character hasn’t appeared in the season yet (as last week’s season premiere largely focused on Tattooine and Mos Pelgo), that hasn’t stopped fans from coming up with a lot of fan theories about who she could be. While there’s always the chance that Banks could end up playing an entirely new character in the franchise – whether a Jedi, a member of the Empire, or someone in between – some have speculated that her role could tie to an existing character or group in the Star Wars lore. Here are just a few of those theories.
Sabine Wren
The most popular – and arguably most controversial – of the theories is that Banks is playing none other than Sabine Wren, who previously made her debut on Star Wars: Rebels. A Mandalorian warrior, artist, and revolutionary, fans theorized that Banks could be playing Sabine almost from the jump, thanks to Banks’ penchant for colorful hair, and the graffiti spotted in The Mandalorian’s Season 2 trailer.
While there still is a chance that Banks could be playing Sabine, the brief seconds of her in the trailer could potentially debunk that possibility. Not only do Banks’ outfit and demeanor in the scene go against how Sabine is traditionally portrayed – and suggest a slightly more sinister character – but her scene is synced with previous dialogue of The Mandalorian remarking about the Jedi. Granted, Star Wars is no stranger to fakeouts in its promotional material, but those clues seem to suggest otherwise.
Latrans
Another theory – albeit, one from a much more obscure corner of Star Wars animated lore – is that Banks could be portraying a previously-unused character named Latrans. An idea crafted by The Clone Wars‘ Dave Filoni – who has since gone on to help spearhead The Mandalorian – Latrans was a female bounty hunter character who used trickery to pose as a Jedi, only to lure force-sensitive children into their grasp and reveal a terrifying true form. While the idea was crafted as a way for The Clone Wars to explain how Ahsoka Tano got into the Jedi Order, it never actually made it onscreen, and the character design was ultimately repurposed for the Zygerrian species on the show. But the character was hinted at publicly by Filoni, and slightly canonized in E.K. Johnston’s Ahsoka tie-in novel.
Given the fact that the core of The Mandalorian‘s narrative is still Mando trying to protect Baby Yoda – and ideally, bring him to the Jedi – this could be the perfect season to bring the Latrans/False Jedi idea to fruition. Not only would the moment toy with The Mandalorian‘s unique approach to Jedi lore, but it would allow Filoni to fully realize a long-running cool idea that he had — and also toy with fans’ expectations about Banks’ character.
An Inquisitor
Another popular theory – especially considering the aesthetic of Banks’ appearance in The Mandalorian trailer – is that she could actually be portraying a member of the Order of the Inquisitors. A group of Force-sensitive secret agents sent out by the Empire, the Inquisitors each took on a unique visual aesthetic, and posed a formidable threat against any Jedi that crossed their paths. The Inquisitors have appeared throughout Star Wars media in recent years, both in comics, novels, episodes of Star Wars: Rebels, and video games like Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order.
While the Inquisitors were believed to have died out following the Battle of Yavin, the idea of them still having some sort of underground presence during the events of The Mandalorian could definitely be plausible, especially with the likes of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) still continuing the Empire’s philosophies. The dark cloak and the reference to “enemy sorcerers” could be teeing up that Banks’ character is an Inquisitor — not only furthering the group’s mythos in live-action, but adding another layer to the Empire’s grasp.
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New episodes of Season 2 of The Mandalorian debut every Friday exclusively on Disney+. If you haven’t checked out Disney+ yet and you want to give it a go, you can do that here.
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