The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal has opened up about the nature of his performance in Season 3 of the Star Wars series.
During a video interview with Variety, Pascal confessed that The Mandalorian Season 3 was “mostly a voice-over gig” for him. “[T]he show was presented to me as The Mandalorian, and all of its, like, visual identity,” the actor said. “At that point, there was so much experience for everyone involved in terms of authoring this character that it was able to become mostly a voice-over gig for Season 3, for the most part.”
Pedro Pascal’s portrayal of The Mandalorian has changed
Pascal has starred as lead protagonist Din “Mando” Djarin on The Mandalorian since the show premiered on Disney+ in 2019. Despite the character more often than not hiding his face behind his beskar helmet, Pascal was actually on set for much of Season 1. Over time, however, the acclaimed actor began spending fewer and fewer days physically embodying the role, while still providing Mando’s voice.
During a recent roundtable discussion for The Hollywood Reporter, Pascal explained why he shifted primarily to voice-over work on the show. “There was an extended amount of experimentation, being in the suit for a lot of it, and frankly, my body wasn’t up for the task as far as, like, the four months of it,” he said. “But I was in it. I was in it a significant amount, an elastic amount. But now we’ve figured it out, which is super cool, and amazingly, it gave me the opportunity to be able to go and do something else.”
Notably, The Mandalorian Season 3 is the first season of the Star Wars series to not feature Pascal’s face. Mando removed his helmet once in Season 1 and twice in Season 2. That said, much like in The Mandalorian Season 3, Mando kept his helmet on for the entirety of the spin-off limited series The Book of Boba Fett.
Nevertheless, Pascal remains heavily involved with bringing Mando to life. “It’s harder work thank you think, and more fun than you would expect as well,” he told Variety. Meanwhile, The Mandalorian Season 3 actually features Pascal’s body doubles, Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne, in the opening credits for their own major contributions.
The Mandalorian Seasons 1-3 are streaming on Disney+.
