Pedro Pascal has been wonderful in the role of Din Djarin in The Mandalorian. Sure, we don’t really see much of his face, but he is The Mandalorian and the fans love him in the role.
In a recent article shared by Vanity Fair, Pascal opened up about being cast as Mando and shared the delightful story of how he ended up being asked to join the film. It turns out that the whole process was super mysterious for him.
In the middle of the development of the series, he met with Jon Favreau at the production offices at the studio and he knew nothing about what Lucasfilm and the producers wanted him for. But, he is a big fan of Favreau and his films, so of course he was excited to take a meeting with the director. The actor talked about what he saw in the office when he walked in, saying:
“All four walls are, corner to corner, covered in story illustrations of the entire first season of the show. I just stepped into the room and was like, ‘Oh, my God … oh, look … oh, wow…’ pointing to this and that, and seeing all of these really beautiful references to the Star Wars that I grew up with. Visually, they were building on those references and creating all of this new stuff.”
Dave Filoni was also there at the meeting as well, and neither he or Favreau said anything to Pascal about what they wanted him for. They just let Pascal look at all the art and designs on the walls, many of which feature the shadow figure of The Mandalorian, and he had no idea who that was yet. He said:
“I really didn’t know what they were planning. Maybe it’s some sort of strategy of mine to lower my expectations as much as possible and not get excited, and presume that they want me to voice one episode, being a droid or something like that. I did not have any idea that they wanted me to step into the shoes of this iconic silhouette that seemed to exist visually from the beginning of the first wall to the second wall, to the third wall, to the fourth wall.”
Pascal eventually made his way to some art of Grogu. He had no idea what the significance of the character was yet, but he knew he was going to be a big hit with fans!
“In one corner, there appeared the illustration of what clearly looked like a baby version of Yoda, and my eye went immediately to it. I didn’t understand whether it was the actual character or not, because I wasn’t quick enough to do the math. The Star Wars math. I just saw the creature, and my heart melted, and I understood. I was like, ‘You guys know people are going to lose their minds when they see that.'”
Favreau and Filoni still had not clued Pascal into why he was there and what they wanted him for. Pascal and the producers then moved to another office to talk about things a little more and it was at this point Pascal felt things getting serious. He initially thought that maybe he would be playing Boba Fett, and then he was handed a helmet that looked a lot like Boba Fett’s.
“I got in my car, and I followed Jon to Manhattan Beach studios from the offices where we initially met. I think I may have called my agent. And I’m like, ‘I think they want me to play Boba Fett!’ … They didn’t say, ‘This is not Boba Fett.’ But I didn’t ask … When we drove over to the Manhattan Beach studios, they had the helmet out, and they put it on me — it fit quite snug — and they were showing me The Volume [the series Bible].”
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was at this meeting. As you might imagine, Pascal’s head was filled with lots of questions about everything he’s seen and no one telling him why he was there or what they wanted him to do. Finally, he broke the silence and asked what they wanted him to do, and everyone was a bit surprised and confused by the question:
“I think that they thought that I knew — but I didn’t know — so I asked them finally: ‘What do you guys want me to do? What do you guys want me to play?’ And they seemed confused. They said, ‘You’re the Mandalorian.’ And I was like, ‘Holy s***…. Really?'”
And that’s the story of how Pedro Pascal ended up in the role of Mandalorian, and everyone lived happily ever after. The End.