Disney+’s The Mandalorian, like most of Star Wars, is no stranger to cameos. From the first season and beyond, we’ve had characters played by Nick Nolte or Taika Waititi show up as aliens and creatures we know and love. Remember when Matthew Berry was a droid in The Book of Boba Fett? Or when Daniel Craig was one of the storm troopers in The Force Awakens? Point is, we love a cameo.
But never has there quite been a cameo fest like the one in the most recent episode of The Mandalorian. And honestly? I loved every second of it. It kept me on my toes and made me constantly wonder who was going to show up next, and it all started with … Tom Holland’s brother?! Who was in love with Christine Adams?!
The episode is all about Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) going to try to find the rest of her clan so that the Mandalorians can live as one people, and for the most part, they’re venturing to Plazir-15 for Bo’s fleet. But what happens is that her clan, including Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) and Koska Reeves (Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado), are mercenaries, and they’re searching for a Mon Calamari prince (Holland) who is with his love on her own ship (Adams).
And while they’re then gone for the rest of the episode, we get to see a lot of Plazir-15 and the people who rule it, and with a planet that prides itself on democracy, it’s one of the funnier episodes of The Mandalorian to date, which is fitting with Jack Black as both the king and elected ruler of the planet and their droid-powered civilization, by the side of his queen and fellow ruler, Lizzo.
I would like to go to Jack Black’s planet
Plazir-15’s entire deal is that it’s a planet that has droids doing everything for its inhabitants, meaning they’re free to spend their days doing whatever they want instead of working. And it also means that their entire civilization would collapse if droids were not their workforce.
Jack Black plays Captain Bombardier, who is married to the Duchess (Lizzo). The two are fun, party-loving rulers who just want Din Djarin and Bo-Katan to figure out why droids are suddenly getting aggressive and freaking out on their planet, which leads Din and Bo back to the Ugnaughts who maintain the droids on Plazir-15—you know, those guys who say, “I have spoken,” when they’re done talking to you?
This is all after Bombardier and the Duchess tell Din and Bo to go and talk to the Commissioner, and lo and behold, Commissioner Helgait is yet another face and name we recognize. Because it’s DOC BROWN! Christopher Lloyd plays Helgait, a Separatist who loves Count Dooku (so make that make sense), and it’s revealed throughout the episode that he happens to be the one tampering with the droids. Look, I didn’t expect to hear a Count Dooku shoutout in the year of our lord 2023, but Star Wars does love to keep us on our toes.
Overall, the amount of cameos in this episode was absolutely baffling but also great? And I loved each of their characters very much! Now we just have to find time to go check back in with the stormtroopers played by Jason Sudeikis and Adam Pally.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
