Star Wars' Ming-Na Wen On Playing The Mandalorian's Fennec Shand Differently For Disney+'s The Bad Batch
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It’s like Werner Herzog’s The Client said The Mandalorian: bounty hunting is a complicated profession. Not everyone is cut out for this line of work, but Ming-Na Wen’s Fennec Shand has been at it for decades. We’ve followed along with an experienced Fennec over The Mandalorian’s first two seasons, and now Star Wars: The Bad Batch is showing what the bounty hunter was up to immediately after the end of the Clone Wars. Wen reprised Fennec for the animated Disney+ series, but she had to tackle the character differently compared to how she played her on The Mandalorian.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Ming-Na Wen about her time on Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and among the questions I asked was if it was difficult or weird for her to voice a character she’s already played in live-action, especially considering the big time gap between The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian: The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. actress responded:
At the time Star Wars: The Bad Batch takes place, Fennec Shand is a newcomer to the bounty hunting game, although it hasn’t taken her long to establish an impressive reputation. Nevertheless, this Fennec still needs to get a lot of experience under her belt, so that provided Ming-Na Wen an opportunity to vocally differentiate the character from the Fennec we’ve seen in The Mandalorian who’s been around the block and is more picky with the jobs she takes. Still, it’d abundantly clear in The Bad Batch that if you cross paths with the young Fennec, expect her to put up one hell of a fight.
As for how voicing Fennec Shand on Star Wars: The Bad Batch compares her other voiceover roles (her credits on that front including Mulan, Phineas & Ferb and Sofia the First), here’s what Ming-Na Wen had to say:
Warning: SPOILERS for the Star Wars: The Bad Batch episode “Bounty Lost” are ahead!
We first crossed paths with Fennec Shand on Star Wars: The Bad Batch in the episode “Cornered,” where she attempted to kidnap Omega on behalf of an unidentified client. She returned in the latest episode, “Bounty Lost,” once again after Omega, but this time having to secure her from Cad Bane. Omega ultimately managed to escape from both bounty hunters and reunite with the Batch, but it was revealed that Fennec and Bane weren’t working off the same bounty. Rather than retrieving Omega on behalf of Lama Su, Fennec was hired by Nala Se to ensure the Omega wasn’t brought back to Kamino. Nala Se was okay with the young clone being back with the Batch, so now Fennec is off to take on a new job.
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Whether we’ll see Fennec Shand on Star Wars: The Bad Batch again remains to be seen, but you can catch new episodes of the series Fridays on Disney+. Ming-Na Wen is also reprising the older Fennec for The Book of Boba Fett, which will premiere later this year on the same streaming service.
Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.