The Book of Boba Fett introduced another notable guest star in its fourth episode, which debuted on Disney Plus today. Previous weeks have featured the likes Danny Trejo, Yellowstone‘s Sophie Thatcher, and King of the Hill’s Stephen Root. In “Chapter 4: The Gathering Storm”, musician Stephen “Thundercat Bruner made his Star Wars debut as a key character known only as “the Mod Artist.”
“Chapter 4” is a flashback-heavy episode that reveals how Boba Fett (Temuera Morison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) came to be such close allies. As we saw way back in The Mandalorian‘s first season, Fett discovered Shand left for dead on the sands of Tatooine. Endeavoring to save her life, the former bounty hunter took the master assassin to a shady mod clinic that’s basically a cross between a cyborg surgery and a tattoo parlor.
While the rest of the place’s clientele are “Mods,” youths who’ve chosen to modify themselves cybernetically, like the biker gang from “Chapter 3”, Fett comes to the Mod Artist for a medical emergency. After paying him off handsomely, Fett gets the surgeon to replace Shand’s wounded stomach with machinery. The Mod Artist successfully brings Shand back from the brink and admires his “beautiful” handiwork afterward.
So who is Thundercat? Thundercat, whose real name is Stephen Lee Bruner, is a bassist, guitarist, singer, and songwriter who initially got his big break as part of the LA thrash band Suicidal Tendencies. He’s since released four solo studio albums, though he might be best known for his contribution to Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, for which he won his first Grammy. Thundercat earned a second Grammy Award in 2020 for his fourth album, It Is What It Is.
While it’s a relatively minor role in terms of screentime, Thundercat’s Mod Artist is an important addition to the series as his talent with cybernetics saved Shand’s life and paved the way for her ongoing partnership with Fett. We’ll have to see which surprise guest stars appear on The Book of Boba Fett next as the series continues Wednesdays on Disney Plus.
