‘The Mandalorian’: Don’t Expect to See Pedro Pascal’s Face In the New Disney+ Star Wars Show — Yet
We never got to see Boba Fett’s face in the original trilogy, so don’t count on seeing The Mandalorian’s either.
We can already hear the fans. “Sure, we got to see his face! The kid in Attack of the Clones!” Technically true, yes. But we never got to see his face in the original trilogy. “Why would we need to” is the question the first Star Wars TV show seems to be asking.
A quick history of Boba Fett
To anyone who is not a rabid Star Wars fan, the love for Boba Fett may seem a little mysterious because he never actually got to do that much.
Although many people remember him from The Empire Strikes Back as one of the bounty hunters hired to track Han Solo, his first screen appearance was in an animated sequence of the much-hated (or much loved, if you’re into ironic humor) Star Wars Holiday Special.
In Empire Strikes Back, he struck a few menacing poses but rarely if ever fired any weapons. In Return of the Jedi, he got to fly around a bit in the battle on Tatooine, but it wasn’t long before he tumbled into the Sarlacc Pit, which feasted on him.
He was rather nonsensically inserted into the special edition of A New Hope, but the next time we saw the character was when he was a child to his dad Jango Fett.
As a kid, Boba was rather like the flip side to the Jake Lloyd Anakin — this bounty hunter in training was a nasty little brat from the start. He saw his dad get decapitated, and then his destiny was set.
How Boba Fett relates to The Mandalorian
He’s everything and nothing to The Mandalorian. Nothing in that Boba Fett is not actually a Mandalorian, but everything in that the aesthetic of this mysterious hunter informs the whole concept and look of the show.
The Mandalorians are a warlike people who are skilled trackers. Boba Fett was a clone who adopted their ways, including their uniform. That’s why the Mandalorian looks like Boba Fett.
According to Heroic Hollywood, the series will most likely stick to the mysterious aesthetic. So if you don’t know what Pedro Pascal looks like, you’re probably not going to find out from the show. Chances are, however, you do know what he looks like thanks to Game of Thrones, where he played Oberyn Martell. While Boba Fett was a clear-cut villain, The Mandalorian is not so clear cut.
“Ultimately he wants to do the right thing,” Pascal said in EW. “But his duties could very much be in conflict with his destiny and doing the right thing has many faces. It can be a very windy road.”
Even Pascal thought he was playing Boba Fett
If you thought the new Star Wars series had something to do with Boba Fett, it’s quite understandable. Pascal himself initially thought that was who he would be playing. Jon Favreau, one of the showrunners, set him straight, according to the site Winteriscoming.net.
“Jon talked about the story, visuals, and tone. I thought it was amazing and finally asked, ‘Well, who am I?’ I’m pointing to different characters, creatures, and aliens in the concept art, and [Jon] just looked at me and said ‘You’re the Mandalorian.’ I was like, ‘WHAT? I get to play Boba Fett?’ He said, ‘No, he’s not Boba Fett. He’s the Mandalorian.’ I couldn’t have imagined a better moment.”
Pascal doesn’t seem at all disappointed, and early positive buzz on The Mandalorian indicates the fans won’t be either. It’s been an uncertain time in Star Wars lately, with people wondering if JJ Abrams is going to wrap up the Skywalker saga well in Episode IX.
Not to mention future Star Wars movies look very uncertain now that Thrones masterminds David Benioff and DB Weiss have departed the galaxy far far away. The Mandalorian might point the way to Star Wars finding its main home on the smaller screen.
