Why the Casting of Brendol Hux Is So Funny on ‘The Mandalorian’
The beginning of this week’s episode of The Mandalorian brought us into Moff Gideon’s big plan for the future of the Empire. As he gets an update over what happened to Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Nevarro—and finds out that the Mandalorians went to his aid—Gideon goes to relay that information back to some of the remaining Empire leaders. While talking about plans that Grand Admiral Thrawn has, we get to meet Commandant Brendol Hux.
That last name is important to fans of the sequel trilogy as General Hux was Kylo Ren’s right-hand man throughout most of the movies. We had known about his father Brendol and his connection to the Empire, but that’s all we really knew about him. Now, we have more of an idea about what Hux is doing as one of the remnant warlords after the fall of the Empire, and how his work is important to the success of their return to power.
In the council of Empire warlords, they’re all fighting over who is meant to lead them with Gideon calling out Grand Admiral Thrawn for not showing up when he should be there. But during that talk, we get to learn a bit more about Brendol Hux!
“The creation of clones is your obsession, not mine,” Gideon says, and we can only think that Project Necromancer has something to do with clones. But it does call General Armitage Hux (Domhnall Gleeson)’s identity into question for many fans. Does this mean that he happens to also be a clone? Or is he just Brendol’s son? We’ll have to wait to learn more, but this point did usher in a hilarious casting choice for Brendol Hux.
It’s all in the family
Who thought that General Armitage Hux’s father would actually be related to actor Domhnall Gleeson? Well, many people, because we all know that Gleeson has a famous family. But what was great was that this episode of The Mandalorian brought us a younger version of Brendol, which meant they could have some fun with the casting.
Now, many thought that Gleeson’s famous father (Brendan Gleeson) might be cast as Armitage’s father, but casting his younger brother Brian Gleeson as Brendol Hux is just very funny to me. Having recently starred in Bad Sisters, I instantly recognized Brian Gleeson when we were shown the clip from this episode during Star Wars Celebration, and it was great to watch everyone slowly realize they hired a Gleeson to continue the Hux bloodline.
We didn’t get to see much of Brendol and yes, I would love if when we get back into the future timeline with Armitage Hux that the older version of his father is played by Brendan Gleeson, but for now, I do love the little nod to Domhnall Gleeson and the Gleeson family as a whole. It’s silly and fun and truly, being one of the few people at Star Wars Celebration to instantly recognize Brian Gleeson had me cackling.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
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