Sigourney Weaver addresses why she made the decision to join The Mandalorian and Grogu. The new Star Wars movie is the franchise’s first since The Rise of Skywalker‘s release in December 2019 and follows the titular characters after the events of The Mandalorian season 3.
The Mandalorian and Grogu‘s cast features Weaver as Colonel Ward, who works for the New Republic. This marks the debut of her fourth major franchise after previously starring in the Alien, Ghostbusters, and Avatar movies.
While speaking with Empire, Weaver explains that “it’s always the script” that determines the projects she ends up joining. She did not set out to join the Star Wars franchise when approached about The Mandalorian and Grogu, but “she fell in love with the script” written by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. Weaver also teases how the franchise is no longer “trying to do the Star Wars to end all Star Wars.” Check out her comments below:
Yeah, that’s my compass; it’s always the script. So [with] The Mandalorian And Grogu, it was not my intention to find a fourth franchise, I didn’t ever imagine that I would enter the Star Wars world. But what’s interesting about Star Wars now is they’re no longer trying to do the Star Wars to end all Star Wars. They’re letting the universe exist, and tell[ing] really interesting stories within that. I think Jon Favreau thought, “Okay, we want this very strong character. Let’s make it a woman.” I’m not sure it was supposed to be a woman. I think again, these days, they often think, “What do I need to do to make this seem more timely?”, and now, because women are doing everything, hooray for us. [But] I just fell in love with the script and said, “I don’t know anything about this world.” Jon said, “Well, you can watch the series,” and I said, “Oh, there’s a series?!”
Most of the Star Wars movies released after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm featured major galactic stakes, including the war between the Resistance and the First Order in the sequel trilogy and the plans for the first Death Star being stolen in Rogue One. Later on, and especially after all the Star Wars shows created for Disney+, the franchise has featured more smaller-scale stories onscreen.
Din Djarin, Grogu, and Colonel Ward will be dealing with the threat of the Imperial Remnant, but Weaver’s comments touch on the fact that this story will be on a bit of a smaller scale compared to some of the previous films. This can partly be attributed to Lucasfilm’s plans shifting away from The Mandalorian season 4 and to a movie instead. At the same time, The Mandalorian and Grogu will further expand the fictional universe and “tell really interesting stories within that.”
After creating and being the showrunner for The Mandalorian series, Favreau not only co-wrote the upcoming movie’s script, but directed the feature film as well. Pedro Pascal, Lateef Crowder, and Brendan Wayne bring Din to life while Grogu appears via puppetry, animatronics, and visual effects.
As for other new cast members, Weaver is joined by The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White. He is voicing Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba, who was first introduced in 2008’s The Clone Wars movie. Rotta appeared as a baby in The Clone Wars but is shown to now be an older, muscular Hutt in The Mandalorian and Grogu trailer.
Even though the fate of Weaver’s character is unknown, there is potential for her to appear in more of the franchise’s stories after The Mandalorian and Grogu’s theatrical release on May 22, 2026, as the threat of the Imperial Remnant continues to be explored during the New Republic era.