Meet Fennec Shand, Ming-Na Wen's The Mandalorian character.
According to Vanity Fair, Wen will play an assassin who "made her name committing murder for the galaxy’s top crime syndicates" and "crosses paths with Pedro Pascal’s masked bounty hunter midway through the first season." The report also included a teaser with the first footage of Wen's character, which appears below.
“We got our inspiration really from the name. The idea of a fennec fox came to mind,” Wen explained. “She’s tricky, and yet she’s able to maneuver and survive, and be stealthy -- so very graceful and agile. I just love that whole image with the name.” She also compared her character to Han Solo, in that Shand has no core belief system but her own survival.
“She is definitely someone who’s loyal to herself,” Wen said.
According to Wen, Shand's backstory "will evolve, it will change. I mean, I think that’s what’s so wonderful about creating a new character. I think she has a good sense of humor about it all as well, which is also fun. You can’t really pinpoint which direction she’s going to go.”
She also revealed her input for Shand's look. “At first, the idea was maybe just have her hair be loose, unkempt kind of thing,” she explained. “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.”
“She has quite a few weapons because she’s a very skilled fighter. Just her body is a weapon in and of itself. And she does carry…a big, big gun. A big boy," she teased.
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte.