The Mandalorian favourite addresses Star Wars return rumours after box-office flop

So, after all the noise, The Mandalorian & Grogu finally brought Star Wars back to cinemas for the first time since 2019. Disney and Lucasfilm clearly wanted to make a point: here we are, back in business, bringing out the big guns (or at least a small green one) with the usual spectacle you might expect. Trouble is, that massive comeback fizzled out a bit.

The Mandalorian & Grogu cost about $300 million to make and market, and only limped to $345 million at the worldwide box office.

Let’s be honest, for a brand like Star Wars, barely scraping past your outlay is not what you’d call a victory parade. That kind of performance has folks suddenly getting a bit cagey about the franchise’s future, whether that’s more films or even more telly. The question mark is as big as Grogu’s eyes when he’s after a snack.

Olyphant’s Coy Routine

If you’re wondering about the fate of familiar faces, one character’s possible return has people talking: Timothy Olyphant, who played Cobb Vanth, the marshal with the dodgy borrowed armour. Olyphant popped up on The Today Show to promote his latest (he’s just been seen in Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth), and naturally, the hosts tried prodding him for Star Wars gossip. Anyone who’s seen Olyphant in interviews knows he’s a master of the awkward non-answer, and this time was no exception.

When pushed about whether he’d filmed anything for The Mandalorian (or whether Cobb Vanth would be back), all he’d say was that he always keeps the lines open with Lucasfilm:

Olyphant told the Today Show: "Listen, every six months, I text those people, and I say, 'Listen, just me and my character, both not dead.' I'm always letting them know. So we'll see."

The hosts tried poking for more, at which point Olyphant gave them the classic round-the-houses brush-off (“We’ll see, we’ll do what we can”) and claimed he was sworn to secrecy—though frankly, when are they not?

A Cobb Vanth Recap

Cobb Vanth actually goes back further than a lot of casual viewers might realise. The bloke was originally introduced in the 2015 novel Star Wars: Aftermath as a lifelong Tatooine resident. He became a lot more visible in The Mandalorian’s second series: now, instead of just being the local lawman, he turns up with Boba Fett’s armour (which, of course, causes all sorts of complications once Fett proves he’s not quite as dead as advertised). Vanth eventually loses the armour but, by then, he’d managed to make an impression on both Boba Fett himself and the audience. For a minute it looked like Cad Bane had finished him off in the spin-off The Book of Boba Fett, but the post-credit scene had Vanth recuperating quietly in a bacta tank. So — not dead, then.

Now What for Mandalorian?

With the film just about breaking even, the prospects for another series (or another movie, for that matter) are far from certain. The secrecy around Vanth isn’t just Olyphant being sneaky—the creative team, led by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, are playing it close to the vest as well. Incidentally, the film itself actually started out as a fourth series of the show, before they decided to go for a cinema release instead. So, if Vanth is ever due for a proper comeback—whether that’s on Disney+ or back at the multiplex—it’s anyone’s guess at this point.