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Column Star Wars

A New Teaser for The Mandalorian Shows Off Ming-Na Wen’s Character

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Published on November 4, 2019

Screenshot: Disney
Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian
Screenshot: Disney

Disney’s upcoming live-action Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian is fast approaching, and today, Vanity Fair premiered a new teaser trailer for the series. It’s not long, but in the 30 seconds, there’s plenty of new footage, along with some new details about Ming-Na Wen’s (Agents of SHIELD, Stargate Universe) character, Fennec Shand.

The teaser is exclusive to Vanity Fair, but it shows off some new footage: we hear Kuiil (an Ugnaught voiced by Nick Nolte) for the first time, scout troopers on speeder bikes, and Fennec Shand telling someone (presumably the unnamed Mandalorian) that “your name will be legendary.”

The piece focuses on Wen’s character, and we learn a couple of new things about her:

Her name is inspired by the fennec fox. Wen describes the character as “tricky, and yet she’s able to maneuver and survive, and be stealthy—so very graceful and agile. I just love that whole image with the name.” The article also notes that Wen had a hand in designing the look of the character, pointing out that the original concept that the character looked a bit disheveled likely wasn’t realistic. “I thought, well, she’s going to be wearing a helmet and she’s this stealth assassin. How great would it be if her hair has a bit of the fennec fox architecture to it? So the hairstylist came up with this great braiding system, that just gives an idea of these triangular points. Like her ears.”

She’s a mercenary. Wen explains that she’s not really good or bad, but it “remains to be seen.” She also compares the character to Han Solo, but with a darker edge. She apparently is well-known as a gun-for hire, and frequently killed people for the galaxy’s crime syndicates. She also has a “moving target” of a past, which changes and evolves, adding a bit more of an air of mystery to her.

She’s the first major Asian-American villain in the franchise. Wen noted that the franchise has borrowed quite a bit of imagery from Asian culture, and that that the representation amongst the actors was limited. “Any sort of representation is important and necessary.”

We won’t see her right away. Fennec Shand shows up halfway through the first season. The article also gives away some of how the story plays out: The Mandalorian takes a bounty from Werner Herzog’s character (seen in prior trailers), and ends up meeting some of the other characters in the show, Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Kuiil, and IG-11 (Taika Waititi.) Presumably he and Shand will cross paths after that.

The Mandalorian premieres on November 12th on Disney +.

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Andrew Liptak

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