Mandalorian & Grogu Actor Reacts To His Mystery Star Wars Villain’s Name

3 weeks ago 19

Jonny Coyne as Lord Janu Coin with Caged Grogu in The Mandalorian and Grogu

Published May 22, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Since 2019, Kevin Erdmann has been one of Screen Rant's Senior Staff Writers, covering all kinds of Superhero and Star Wars media with Easter egg breakdowns, theory pieces, breaking news, and more. A huge Star Wars & MCU fan, Kevin also loves Batman (because he's Batman), but could talk for hours about why Nightwing is DC's greatest hero.

With 8 years of total experience covering entertainment and pop culture, Kevin has gotten the chance to interview top creatives and talent, and has also attended major media events like Disney's D23 convention.

Majoring in Cinema Studies with a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife, adorable dog, and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for The Mandalorian & Grogu

One of the biggest lingering mysteries surrounding The Mandalorian & Grogu ahead of the new Star Wars movie's release involved one of its key Imperial Remnant villains. First debuting in The Mandalorian season 3 as part of the Imperial Shadow Council, actor Jonny Coyne played one of several unnamed Imperial warlords on the Disney+ series. However, that's finally changed thanks to Coyne's latest appearance clashing with Pedro Pascal's Din Djarin and his adopted son.

Speaking with ScreenRant's Kevin Erdmann, Jonny Coyne shared some exciting details in an interview conducted ahead of the movie’s release. While the actor understandably remained careful about spoilers, Coyne did reveal a few entertaining behind-the-scenes details, while also teasing his mysterious warlord's name.

When the news first broke that Jonny Coyne's Imperial warlord would be returning The Mandalorian & Grogu, several theories popped up online about what his name might be. Although there were hopes that Coyne's Star Wars villain would ultimately be revealed as a canonical version of a classic Imperial warlord from the pre-Disney continuity, the actual name is far more amusing.

Jonny Coyne Reveals His Reaction To His Mandalorian Villain's Name: Lord Janu Coin

An Imperial Warlord (Jonny Coyne) speaks to the Imperial Shadow Council via holo on Mandalore.

As seen in The Mandalorian & Grogu, Rotta the Hutt's benefactor Lord Janu and the mysterious Imperial warlord Commander Coin are ultimately revealed to be the same man: Lord Janu Coin...played by actor Jonny Coyne. Naturally, the naming convention was absolutely intentional on the part of director/writer Jon Favreau.

While he was unable to share his character's name in ScreenRant's interview, Jonny Coyne did reveal when he first learned of his Star Wars character's name and his initial reaction.

ScreenRant: Beyond the little we learned from those few lines in The Mandalorian season 3, one of the biggest mysteries is your character's name. Were you told the character's name during the show, or did you have to wait a little while longer until the movie?

Jonny Coyne: I first saw the character's name in the contract (for Mandalorian & Grogu). It will put a smile on your face at best, I think. I'm not sure what it will do, but when I saw the character's name on the contract, I went, "Oh ok, yeah, I get it." I can't tell you any more than that, really.

Honestly, it’s a pretty fun and rare Star Wars naming convention. Notable examples include Revenge of the Sith's Jedi Master Cin Drallig, who fought Anakin Skywalker in the Jedi Temple, played by Lucasfilm stunt coordinator Nick Gillard ("Drallig" being Gillard backwards). Likewise, actor Warwick Davis played Wicket W. Warrick in Return of the Jedi, the Ewok hero who befriended Leia Organa.

Admittedly, the fan theories speculating that Coyne’s character could be a canonized version of someone like Legends' Warlord Zsinj were pretty solid. After all, Coyne’s look and involvement with the Shadow Council does resemble the classic foe from the former Expanded Universe.

Instead, Favreau simply chose to Star Wars-ify Jonny Coyne’s real name to “Janu Coin", and the actor was absolutely right. The reveal in The Mandalorian & Grogu did indeed make me smile.

Is There A Future For Lord Janu In Star Wars Beyond The Mandalorian & Grogu?

Lord Janu, Zeb, and Din Djarin in Speeder in The Mandalorian and Grogu

By The Mandalorian & Grogu's ending, Lord Janu is placed into custody, where it was also confirmed that the Imperial warlord confessed that Jabba's cousins known as the Twins were playing the New Republic, feeding false information while truly allying themselves with the Imperial Remnant. That being said, Imperial warlords have been known to escape the New Republic before (like Moff Gideon).

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”

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⚡The SithRule of two

⚙️The RebellionA new hope

🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way

👑The EmpireOrder 66

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The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?

A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980

✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.

✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.

A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.

ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner

✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.

✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.

In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?

AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father

✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.

✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.

Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.

AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson

✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.

In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?

A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014

✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.

✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.

The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?

ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze

✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.

Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?

AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One

✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.

Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.

ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni

✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).

✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.

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Keeping that in mind, it wouldn’t be all that surprising if Lord Janu eventually resurfaced in future New Republic projects. Likewise, Coyne himself is open to returning if Lucasfilm were to give him a call. At the same time, Coyne also confirmed he's quite happy and grateful for his time in the Star Wars franchise thus far:

ScreenRant: Would you like to see a future for this character in Star Wars? Do you think there could be room for him in the future of the franchise?

Jonny Coyne: Always happy to make an appearance in Star Wars, but you have to understand, this is as high as any actor could...Every actor's dream is to do a franchise movie like this. So as far as I'm concerned, I've done it. And if there's any more to be had after that, fantastic. But I've enjoyed the ride.

At the beginning of the interview, Coyne also revealed that he originally saw A New Hope in theaters back in 1977 when he was around 18 years old. Nearly five decades later, he’s now part of the galaxy far, far away itself, an incredible journey for a longtime Star Wars fan if there ever was one. Even if we don't see Lord Janu again, it's more than likely that Jonny Coyne will remain part of the Star Wars legacy for years to come (especially with such a fun character name so close to his own).

The Mandalorian & Grogu is now in theaters from Lucasfilm. You can also find Jonny Coyne here on Instagram.