‘The Mandalorian: Sasha Banks’ Character Revealed in Chapter 11
Chapter 11 #Chapter11
The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 3 included the introduction of one of the most hotly-anticipated guest stars for the Disney+ show. Sasha Banks, best known for her work for WWE, was first teased in the trailer for the Star Wars show, leading fans to speculate exactly who she was playing in the show.
Most of those guesses, however, were wrong. The WWE superstar, credited under her real name Mercedes Varnado, was thought to be playing Sabine Wren, the Mandalorian graffiti artist and rebellion leader from Star Wars Rebels. The main evidence for this, however, seemed to be that Wren sometimes had purple hair, as does Varnado’s Sasha Banks wrestling persona.
The Mandalorian | Season 2 Official Trailer
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On The Mandalorian Chapter 11, titled “The Heiress,” however, we learned that Banks is playing a character named Koska Reeves, one of the two Mandalorian warriors working for Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff).
Though Banks seems to be playing a new character to the Star Wars world, Sackhoff is reprising a character she first played in The Clone Wars. There, she was the leader of the Mandalorian resistance against the Empire when it occupied Mandalore. She was also the wielder of a fearsome weapon known as the Darksaber.
This gives us a good idea of Banks’ role in The Mandalorian. In the Disney+ show, the Darksaber is now in the possession of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), so clearly Bo-Katan wants it back—and Reeves is one of her fellow Mandalorian rebels who is helping her get it back.
More specifically, Koska a member of the Nite Owls, a band of female Mandalorian warriors led by Bo-Katan, who then became part of the Mandalore resistance.
Reeves is most likely a new character, but Gamespot has done a deep dive into obscure Star Wars lore to uncover a character called Reeves who was a female captain in the Rebel Alliance who appeared in a 1994 Star Wars roleplaying feature in Valkyrie magazine.
Banks’ appearance in the show also revealed a little more of the Mandalore lore. While our main Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) has only taken his helmet off once in the show, with the character claiming a Mandalorian should never take his helmet off in front of others, Bo-Katan, Koska and the third Mandalorian we met in “The Heiress” Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) take their helmets off all the time.
Furthermore, we see Koska without her armor at all in an early scene, where she follows Mando while wearing a cloak.
As Bo-Katan explains, “the way” that Mando follows is actually that of a small and obscure religious sect of Mandalorians named The Watch. Bo-Katan describes them as “a cult of religious zealots who broke away from Mandalorian society. Their goal was to re-establish the ancient way.”
Other Mandalorians, meanwhile, feel comfortable with taking their armor off in public – including possibly Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) who made an armorless appearance in the first episode of Season 2.
This might be good news for Mando actor Pedro Pascal, as his character is just one small religious conversion away from taking his helmet off more—meaning that we actually get to see the lead actor of the show more than once.
The Mandalorian Season 2 airs Fridays on Disney+.
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