The Mandalorian 2.1 Review - 5 Ups And 2 Downs

4. Cobb Vanth Makes His Live Action Debut

The Mandalorian Season 2 Cobb Vanth
Lucasfilm / Disney+

Okay, so, for Expanded Universe fans, this was ridiculously brilliant.

As Mando reaches the settlement of Mos Pelgo in search of a particular Mandalorian, he's confronted by Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant), the sheriff of Freetown. Vanth had previously made his debut in the Aftermath series of novels, where it was revealed he had retrieved some damaged Mandalorian armour and was wearing it to protect the local area. It had long been presumed that Vanth's armour was actually Boba's, but to see it confirmed in Friday's Season 2 opener is still pretty cool.

Olyphant - himself no stranger to Westerns, having previously portrayed Seth Bullock on HBO's critically acclaimed Deadwood - portrays Vanth brilliantly. He's a classic Western archetype (the season opener leans into the Western genre with particular gusto), but you can just tell he's having a blast on screen. A highlight for those already familiar with the character I'm sure.

The episode reveals how Vanth found Boba's armour scavenged by Jawas and used it to liberate his town from a terrible mining company in the wake of the Empire's collapse. Din Djarin isn't too pleased that he's wearing the armour though (ironic, given Boba wasn't a "true" Mandalorian either), and demands to see it returned. Vanth is happy to oblige, so long as Mando assists him by slaying a Krayt Dragon that's terrorising the town, which then becomes the main focus of the episode.

It remains to be seen if we'll see Vanth again, but his appearance was a highlight nonetheless.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.