An unexpected character from The Mandalorian and Grogu has a strange connection to Dave Filoni
Feb 20, 2026
As revealed in the new trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, released this week, bounty hunter Embo will make his feature film debut in the upcoming Star Wars film.
As noted by user @jtimsuggs on Twitter/X, there is a rather strange story about how Dave Filoni came up with the voice for Embo.
In a video dedicated to the episode “Bounty Hunters” of the series “The Clone Wars, published on StarWars.com, Filoni detailed how he was inspired by the French book about the Smurfs when voicing Embo.
“I had to come up with a language for Embo. My editor, Nick Anastassiou, who is French, had books about the Smurfs, all written in French, because his son Alex sometimes comes and reads them. I just took one of them, even though I don't speak French. I opened it and deliberately pronounced French words very poorly. Nick ended up loving it, and so did the director [Steward Lee]. So in the end I am Embo.”
Filoni also reveals in the documentary that Embo was originally supposed to die in an episode of The Clone Wars, but he simply could not be killed. “In the original story, he died,” Filoni said. “Everyone watched that episode and everyone said, 'Oh, that Embo, we really like him.' Not because of the voice, but because the action was cool,” Filoni explained. "Suddenly people started saying, 'We shouldn't kill him.' Then we had to reshoot, and Embo turned out to be alive. So Embo is out there somewhere now. Who knows what Embo's future holds, but he has a cool hat."