Fans are going crazy over Timothy Olyphant’s unexpected appearance in the premiere episode of The Mandalorian Season 2 as Cobb Vanth.
While many fans had been looking forward to the return of Baby Yoda in Season 2, the consensus among fans on social media is that Olyphant stole the show from the infant character when he made his debut just minutes into the show.
The actor is introduced as Cobb Vanth, the swaggering and gun-slinging marshal of a derelict mining town on Tatooine called Mos Pelgo.
Olyphant first appears in a scene that takes place at a bar. When he walks through the door into the bar in Boba Fett’s Mandalorian armor, viewers can’t see his face because he is wearing the helmet.
He then invites The Mandalorian to join him for a drink.
Not even Olyphant fans familiar with the actor’s typecasting as a gun-slinging, no-nonsense law enforcement officer anticipated what was coming.
At first, the cameras did not show his face when he sat at a table, removed his helmet, and placed it on the table.
Fans got a huge surprise when the cameras panned to reveal the actor’s handsome face for the first time.
Timothy Olyphant debuts in The Mandalorian and Twitter goes wild
Fans have been flocking to Twitter to express their excitement over the appearance of Timothy Olyphant in The Mandalorian series.
“Timothy Olyphant stole the episode for me. I mean d**n Cowboy Marshal of Tatooine with Boba’s Mando Armor that’s really bad***,” an excited fan tweeted.
“I love this career that Timothy Olyphant has carved out where he plays almost exclusively marshals/sheriffs on TV,” another fan tweeted.
“Timothy Olyphant you beautiful b*****d,” a third excited fan tweeted.
Olyphant then went on to violate The Mandalorian “way” by removing his helmet
Fans already know about an aspect of the culture of the Mandalorian race — summed up in the often-repeated expression “This is the way” — that forbids a Mandalorian from removing their helmet and showing their face.
So when Olyphant entered the bar, fans must have assumed the character was another member of The Mandalorian race whose face they would never get to see.
Viewers were surprised when Cobb Vanth removed his helmet. The irreverent, rule-breaking stunt takes on a new meaning when it is revealed that the actor behind the helmet is Timothy Olyphant.
Olyphant made an entire acting career out of portraying individualistic, non-conformist but heroic characters, such as Raylan Givens in Justified and Seth Bullock in Deadwood.
A Mandalorian is shocked to see someone who is not a member of the race wearing the armor. He demands to know where Vanth got the armor.
Vanth explained to The Mandalorian how he came into possession of the armor.
He nonchalantly told The Mandalorian that he “bought it off some Jawas.” He traded some valuable crystals he obtained from a slave camp for the armor.
The Mandalorian Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.