This Week in The Clone Wars: Hondo's Space Pirates Return

This week's episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars returns to the season's main theme, "Bounty Hunters," but with a twist: Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka team up with a gang of bounty hunters to defend a village against Hondo and his space pirates, last seen drugging the Jedi in season one.

Jim Cummings, who voices Hondo, argues that the pirate hearkens back to some of the great rascals in Star Wars history:

"People want to be seduced. People like a rascal. People like pirates…sort of, as long as they’re not totally pillaging and wreaking havoc . . . There’s a certain fascination we have with these bad guys – bikers, pirates, scoundrels, all the Robin Hoods of the world. And Hondo’s so much fun; I really dig him. He’s not a master villain, but he won’t be growing a halo anytime soon, either. The lovable rogue, the lovable rascal. You don’t mind inviting him over for dinner, but you’d better count the silverware after he leaves."

Hondo’s P.T. Barnum. He’s got a little Charles Bronson in him. He’s Harry Mudd, always glad-handing – and the next thing you know, you’ve lost your watch. He’s a conjurer and a maneuverer, and he gets the job done. If he has to a do a little heavy lifting now and then, so be it – but rather than go the way of the bicep, he prefers to develop a little craft. At the end of the day, when everyone counts their stacks, his will be a little bigger than yours – and you won’t even know how it happened. He’s an opportunist, but if there’s a nickel holding up a dime, he’ll move on. He weighs his results against the effort it takes to get them; if one outweighs the other…NEXT!”

That's fine, although if he's such a charming scoundrel, it seems like Anakin or Obi-Wan should be working with him, even at arm's length, rather than against him.

Cummings's description of Hondo's voice is priceless:

“There are indistinct accents that are familiar, to an extent, but still sound foreign – like when Roman centurions have British accents in gladiator movies. It lets the audience know that this is an Other, and yet we can still identify. It’s relatable. . . . Coming up with Hondo’s voice, I looked to one guy who had always fascinated me: Yul Brynner. As a kid, I’d think, ‘Where the HECK is this guy from?’ But you could buy him as the King of Siam, or as a cowboy in The Magnificent Seven, or as a robot in Westworld. I don’t do a great impression of Yul Brynner – but if you do a bad impression of someone, it becomes a new voice, a new character. So I just poured a lot of sand on my bad Yul Brynner – for texture – and that’s Hondo. But I don’t try to think about it too much; I always say that instincts are the best-stincts."

Here's the clip:

The episode premieres Friday, April 2, at 9pm on The Cartoon Network.

And, a bonus still of another new bounty hunter from this week's episode, Embo.