One of the strange things about Star Wars—Star Wars in the modern era, specifically—is that pretty much anyone who works on it these days has a better-than-average chance of being a Star Wars fan. After all, even veteran actors were teenagers once, killing time in 1977 by seeing the original movie god knows how many times, and dreaming of some day also getting a lightsaber (or to touch a bantha, as the case may be). Still, there’s Star Wars fandom, and then there’s the appreciation brought to the franchise by character actor W. Earl Brown, who showed up on today’s second season premiere of The Mandalorian, teaming up with his old Deadwood pal Timothy Olyphant, and also Baby Yoda was there.
Brown—who played strong-but-sensitive murderer-barman Dan Dority on Deadwood—recounted his time on the show’s set on his Instagram, talking about his love for the franchise, his excitement at meeting “The Child”—still not calling him that, Disney—in person, and his request to slip a few “cocksuckers” into the dialogue for old time’s sake. (Jon Favreau said no.) Mostly, though, Brown is just incredibly charming in his enthusiasm for the franchise, including his willingness to take on the part, which required extensive facial prosthetics to perform.