The sizzle reel for the Clone Wars spin-off series, The Bad Batch, featured an unexpected appearance when Ming-Na Wen’s character from The Mandalorian was spotted. Fennec Shand was featured in the sizzle reel much to Mandalorian fans excitement. Ming-Na Wen spoke with Starwars.com about how difficult it was to stay quiet about The Bad Batch:
“Do you know how long I’ve had to keep silent about Fennec coming back?” Ming-Na Wen asks with a joyful laugh. “This is the first time I’ve been able to talk about it!” Dave Filoni told Ming-Na Wen she still needed to keep quiet after The Bad Batch sizzle reel was revealed at Disney Investor Day. Ming-Na Wen responded, “Dave, if you wanted to keep it a secret you shouldn’t have put me in the trailer!” she laughs. “Everybody is saying they just want the confirmation. So, yes, it is Fennec! It’s a younger Fennec and she is voiced by me and I’m thrilled and beyond happy that Dave wanted to create more of a backstory for her.”
Fennec Shand was first introduced in The Mandalorian’s fifth episode “The Gunslinger” as a mercenary who worked for the crime syndicates, notably the Hutts. A bounty was put out on her when the New Republic rose to power and in “The Gunslinger” she was being hunted by a hopeful of the Bounty Hunter guild on the familiar planet Tatooine. Fennec Shand was shot and seemingly killed, but was found at the end of the episode by Boba Fett.
MING-NA WEN TALKS ABOUT FENNEC SHAND IN THE BAD BATCH
Fennec Shand returned in the second season of The Mandalorian alongside the fan favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett. While we know where she ends up after the Empire falls, The Bad Batch will show her when the Empire rises to power after the Clone Wars.
“She’s cutting her teeth as a bounty hunter in The Bad Batch…She’s still a loner, a drifter…. There’s just a sense of more recklessness about her, just bravado. You know, a young punk. She’s more adventurous and willing to take greater risks because she doesn’t know what the consequences are.”
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Fennec Shand likely isn’t alone in this with a number of characters trying to find their place in the new order of the galaxy, including the titular Bad Batch. It’s exciting that not only will Fennec be featured in The Bad Batch, but she will be voiced by Ming-Na Wen. She talked a bit with Starwars.com about how she found Fennec’s voice on The Mandalorian. This well thought out voice that she has cultivated will likely be integral in her performance in The Bad Batch.
“All the other characters have their own rhythm and I wanted to create a different rhythm for her,” Ming-Na Wen explains. “I definitely use a slightly different voice for Fennec, a lower register. She talks a little slower, she has a sort of a slight drag to her speech. She pauses at strange places in her dialogue because she’s thinking. She’s always thinking.”
THE BAD BATCH OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
The series follows the elite and experimental clones of the Bad Batch (first introduced in The Clone Wars) as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy in the immediate aftermath of the Clone War. Members of Bad Batch — a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army — each possess a singular exceptional skill, which makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. In the post-Clone War era, they will take on daring mercenary missions as they struggle to stay afloat and find new purpose.
Ming-Na Wen will reprise Fennec Shand in the upcoming animated series The Bad Batch. She will also star in the upcoming spin-off of The Mandalorian, The Book Of Boba Fett in December 2021. Are you excited to see Fennec Shand in The Bad Batch? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or on our social media.
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