You Won't Believe This Link Between 'The Mandalorian' And John Wayne

Star Wars really is a mixture of genres. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Adventure and, weirdly enough, Western. Granted, not all of Star Wars feels like a Space Western, but there are aspects that do. And this can be seen most in the original Star Wars, The Mandalorian and recently, The Book of Boba Fett. Funnily enough these three feature a certain planet: Tatooine. A desert world in the Outer Rim. In a Western, this would be the "frontier." With outlaws, gunslingers, bounty hunters, bars/cantinas, with the law just barely holding on, like a kite dancing in a hurricane. Westerns may have gone out of popularity in cinema, but they have left a lasting impact.

When you think of a Western, there's a few names that come to mind from the genre. Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef (ironically both inspiring Boba Fett and Cad Bane) of the Spaghetti westerns and John Wayne of the more traditional westerns. But unlike Eastwood and Cleef, John Wayne actually had involvement in Star Wars. Over forty years later, those old Western roots live on in Star Wars with Wayne's grandson, Brendan Wayne, being involved in The Mandalorian. Like grandfather, like grandson. Both involved in the galaxy far, far away.

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Now, John Wayne wasn't cast in Star Wars, his involvement in the original '77 film was due to stock audio. this was then processed greatly into alien language. Now there are fans that know this little bit of trivia, but there will be those that do not. So who was John providing the audio far? Well, the Imperial Spy Garindan of course:

Aye that little Imperial snitch. Tattle-telling on our band of heroes to the Imperials. Tisk, tisk. The "speech" you hear, or alien language if you will, is that of John Wayne, processed to the point of it being unrecognizable. Perhaps it was the line "They went that way pilgrim." Makes sense and would add more to this Easter Egg. Sadly this would be John's last role in film before his death in 1979.

Fast forward 40 years later and those gunslinger roots continue with The Mandalorian. The show was even promoted as centering on a new mysterious gunslinger similar to that of Jango and Boba Fett. Set during the early years of the New Republic, four years after the Empire's defeat in the Outer Rim. The "Wild West" of Star Wars.

While Pedro Pascal IS the Mandalorian Din Djarin, there are others that wear the armor; stunt doubles. One of them being Brendan Wayne. In fact during Chapter 4: Sanctuary, that's not Pascal in the armor, as Pascal was busy with another project (rehearsals for King Lear) at the time of filming that episode. It was stunt performers Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder standing in for him. Little things like that add to Star Wars' connections to the Western genre.

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Written by Connor Heggie

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