This makes me think of some quote along the lines of "don't assume malice when idiocy is a good explanation too." The unobservant watcher may think that Chewie's character was a bounty hunter because he was pursuing the crew. Some people just assume any guy chasing the good guys in science fiction is a "bounty hunter." Which doesn't mean the same as it does to you and I. It just means "the bad guy who wants to capture them." Thank Star Wars for that.

I hope that's the case, at least.

I think there have been suggestions that, had Firefly not been cancelled, Jubal Early would have returned at the end of S1 and served the plot function that the Operative serves in the film; ie, in a sense they're the same character. Is it possible you read a shorthand reference to that?

Don't think so in this case, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's an influence.

Glad that didn't happen, because Early stopped being interesting to me as soon as the stuff about his childhood came out.

Can’t they tell two black guys apart?

Feminist SF has a blog entry on Joss Whedon and race) that also describes Ejiofor's character as a bounty hunter. Then, going one better, one of the comments refers to Ejiofor himself as an "African-American." Must be the Bronx accent that threw them off.