Katee Sackhoff Thought That Her Bo-Katan Character Would Be Recast For Scarlett Johansson
To convey an animated character into live-action can be a challenging task. First, you need to find an actor or an actress who looks at least a little bit like the figure he or she is going to play without applying a ton of make-up and/or CGI. The voice is another aspect, as it shouldn’t vary too much from the “original,” but you probably still have the chance to use the voice actor who played this character in animated form. And last but not least, there are some facial expressions or body movements that an audience will accept with an animated character, but that look kind of “off” when done in live-action (even if it isn’t a more cartoony character like, let’s say Popeye).
Starting with 1994’s The Jungle Book (no, this is not the one by Jon Favreau!), Disney dabbled in remaking some of their animated movies, a trend that has accelerated in recent years with releases like The Jungle Book (2016, yes, this is the one by Favreau!), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Dumbo, The Lion King (both 2019), and Mulan (2020), and this trend isn’t going to stop anytime soon, with 10 more movies alone slated for a theatrical release in the upcoming years.
As for Star Wars, one of the major character to recently make the jump from animation to live-action was Bo-Katan, who was introduced in season 4 of The Clone Wars, later appeared in Star Wars Rebels, and most recently helped Din Djarin find Ahsoka Tano (another major animated character who was "transformed" into flesh and blood) in the third episode of The Mandalorian season 2
In all three shows, Bo-Katan was portrayed by Katee Sackhoff, who, outside of Star Wars, is probably best known for her role as Kara “Starbuck” Thrace in Battlestar Galactica by Ronald D. Moore (2003 – 2008). Apart from all this, she has appeared in or lend her voice to in sum nearly 60 films, TV shows, and video games, like Riddick, 24, The Flash, Another Life, and Call of Duty.
It is not entirely clear whether Dave Filoni had Sackhoff in mind when he designed Bo-Katan’s appearance (as there is a resemblance between the two women), but it is somehow doubtful, as there is no real precedence for this in Star Wars lore. (For example, Tiya Sircar doesn’t exactly look like Sabine Wren, and Pre Vizsla absolutely doesn’t look anything like Jon Favreau).
In a recent interview with Michael Rosenbaum, Sackhoff admits that she was quite surprised to be asked to play a live-action version Bo-Katan, as she expected Lucasfilm to cast an A-list actor like Scarlett Johansson. She actually seems very humbled and understated when she says:
“I’ve had a beautiful career and there have been great things. But, I’ve seen people around me get that big, huge, massive thing and you go "Wow, so proud of them, so excited for them. It’s amazing, ’cause if it happens to someone else, there’s still hope, right, that it can happen to you? But, it never happened to me, like that big, huge thing had never happened, so I always joked, 'of course they’ll recast it, they’ll probably hire Scarlett Johansson.'"
She was in fact teasing Dave Filoni about a live-action Bo-Katan a few years back, but when Favreau actually called and offered her the role of the Mandalorian warrior, she was still shocked.
The Mandalorian has a big budget, so Lucasfilm would have been able to afford an actress of Johansson's caliber, and without any doubt, she would have delivered a fantastic Bo-Katan. But Star Wars is not necessarily known for going after real BIG movie stars (if they don’t ask to get a role, like Samuel Jackson did), focusing more on up-and-coming actors or B-listers (and this isn’t meant to be disrespectful).
Many expected Ashley Eckstein to play a live-action Ahsoka, but Ashley is – apart from being a successful entrepreneur with her clothing and apparel company Her Universe - primarily a voice actor, and there is definitely a difference between acting behind a microphone and acting behind a camera. And so, the gig went to Rosario Dawson, who delivered a stunning performance in The Mandalorian and will surely do it again in her own series.
As for Katee Sackhoff, her return in season three of The Mandalorian has not been officially confirmed. But the way season 2 ended, it doesn’t take much to see Bo-Katan play an even bigger role in the series, as she tries to legitimately reclaim the Darksaber and her position as the leader of Mandalore.
Source(s): Screen Rant