Timothy Olyphant Narrowly Escaped A Famous ‘Deadwood’ Insult During A Reunion On ‘The Mandalorian’ Set

Timothy Olyphant made a huge splash with Star Wars fans when he popped up in the Season 2 premiere of The Mandalorian as Cobb Vanth, an armor-wearing space marshal who was reminiscent of his popular lawman roles on Justified and Deadwood. But what fans might not have noticed is that there was a bit of a mini reunion happening on the western-themed episode. The unnamed Weequay bartender in the cantina where Mando first meets Cobb Vantha was played by W. Earl Brown, who starred as bartender Dan Dority on HBO’s Deadwood.

With the episode out in the open, Brown was finally free to reveal how his role in the Season 2 premiere came about, and how he had to keep secret for almost an entire year. In a lengthy Twitter thread that started with Brown almost turning down the part because he didn’t want to work with prosthetics again after having a bad experience on Angel, the actor recalled his first day of set with Olyphant where the two regaled the crew by reenacting scenes from Deadwood. After showrunner Jon Favreau gushed about being a fan of the HBO series, Brown saw an opening to hopefully work a famous insult from the show into The Mandalorian.

Needless to say, it wasn’t going to fly on a Disney+ show.

Jon walks on set, laughing “I swear to God, I love that show — I absolutely idolize Milch. We cast you first,”

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— W. Earl Brown (@WEarlBrown) October 30, 2020

“No… Okay everyone, PLACES…”

I still had not met my other scene partner. The Props guy rolled his cart through the set. I thought, “Awwwwww… that is so cute. The props guy went and made himself a Baby Yoda.”

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— W. Earl Brown (@WEarlBrown) October 30, 2020

The whole thread is worth a read as Brown opens up about seeing Baby Yoda for the first time, which was a total surprise to the actor. Production on The Mandalorian was done so far in advance that Brown’s episode was actually filmed as the first season started to air on Disney+. However, in a surprise twist, his wife works for Disney and knew about The Child the whole time. Imagine keeping that secret from your spouse.