WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for The Book of Boba Fett Episode 1, "Stranger in a Strange Land," now available on Disney+.
The Book of Boba Fett's pilot episode provided voice actor Sam Witwer with another Star Wars character to include in his portfolio.
Skywalker Sound mixer David Collins revealed on Twitter that Witwer, best known for voicing ex-Sith Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, lent his voice to a Rodian held captive by Tusken Raiders in the debut episode of The Book of Boba Fett. This Rodian, only seen in Fett's flashbacks, is later forced alongside Fett to dig for water pods in Tatooine's sand, only to be killed by a four-armed sand creature that Fett, in turn, strangles to death.
Witwer, a veteran Star Wars voice actor, played both Darth Vader's apprentice Starkiller and Emperor Palpatine in the 2008 video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, later returning as Starkiller for its sequel. He then starred in The Clone Wars as Force entity the Son during Season 3's Mortis storyline before landing the role of Maul in Season 4's final arc. Witwer would continue to voice Maul for Season 5 and, following The Clone Wars' cancelation, reprise his role in projects like Dave Filoni's animated series Star Wars Rebels and 2017's Star Wars Battlefront II. He also eventually returned for The Clone Wars' final season on Disney+. Maul briefly appeared in 2018's Solo, with Witwer dubbing the character's lines over longtime Maul stuntman Ray Park.
While details of how Boba Fett survived the Sarlaac Pitt weren't discussed in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett's flashbacks canonically revealed what happened to the bounty hunter after the events of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. Using the oxygen of a digested stormtrooper to survive, Fett successfully escaped the beast's stomach using his flamethrower, only to lose his armor to passing Jawas and be recovered by a wandering Tusken Raider tribe.
Episode director Robert Rodriguez also had a brief cameo as a Trandoshan who offers Fett and his associate Fennec Shand a tribute as Tatooine's latest crime lord. While nothing has been confirmed yet, The Book of Boba Fett's story -- which sees the duo navigate the planet's various underworld bosses -- could tie into Maul's own syndicate Crimson Dawn, with Solo's final act revealing him to be the organization's secret leader. Marvel's Star Wars comics have since integrated Crimson Dawn into the current timeline, reintroducing themselves by stealing Han Solo's carbonite block from Fett and auctioning it off to the Empire and other criminal groups. The comics also revealed Crimson Dawn's new leader is Han's ex-lover Qi'ra, whose story is currently being told in the new Crimson Reign series.
The Book of Boba Fett is currently streaming on Disney+. New episodes air Wednesdays.
Source: Twitter