One of the biggest rivals to the eponymous bounty hunter of The Mandalorian has been revealed, portrayed by fan-favorite actress Ming-Na Wen.
As the antagonistic bounty Fennec Shand, Wen's character will oppose Pedro Pascal's masked mercenary as he takes a contract in the Outer Rim of the galaxy. Wen personally had a hand in developing her Star Wars character's look, taking inspiration from the character's foxy namesake.
"At first, the idea was maybe just have her hair be loose, unkempt kind of thing," explained Wen in an interview with Vanity Fair. "And 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."
For Wen, the character's look offers her a nice contrast her character Melinda May across all seven seasons of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"It just gives her such a strong, unique look. I’ve been doing Agent May all these years with long flowing Marvel hair, I wanted to make this character, who's also such a badass, very different, very stark in a way.”" continued Wen. "The designer, Joseph [Porro,] came up with this amazing outfit that I fell in love with right away. It’s black, but then there’s the fennec orange punch to it. So that’s kind of like her brand, I guess.”
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte. The series debuts Nov. 12 on Disney+, the same date as the streaming service's official launch.