Why Three Actors Play The Mandalorian (Not Just Pedro Pascal)

Summary

Pedro Pascal shares the role of Din Djarin in
The Mandalorian
with Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder due to the armor’s physical demands.
Pascal struggles with physical stress in the suit due to limited visibility, difficulty breathing, old injuries, and more.
This arrangement allows Pascal to focus on providing The voice for Din Djarin while still maintaining control over the character.

Pedro Pascal stars as Din Djarin, the titular character of The Mandalorian, but there are also at least two other actors who have been bringing the character to life along with him ever since the Star Wars TV show’s debut. The level of Pascal’s physical involvement in The Mandalorian has been a topic of discussion ever since the TV show first premiered, which has led to some disappointment among audiences. While many point to Pascal’s busy schedule as the reason for this, there’s more to it, as proven by the partnership that’s existed since the beginning.

In addition to Pascal, both Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder often step into Mando’s suit to bring the character to life, with the former being mostly responsible for gunslinging and stand-in acting, while the latter tackles both fights and stunts. While there have also been other contributors, such as Barry Lowin, these two are the actors who take charge whenever Pascal isn’t physically on set. This is something that has been especially true of every The Mandalorian season and project thus far other than season 2, and there’s a reasoning for it that goes beyond scheduling.

The Mandalorian Cast & Characters Guide

The Mandalorian has created a long list of new Star Wars characters and brought back some familiar ones, with an incredible cast to match.

Din Djarin Is A Physically Demanding Role To Play

This Character Requires a Lot of Physicality

While scheduling may still be a part of the reason why Pascal isn’t always inside Din Djarin’s armor, the main reason for it has much more to do with how physically demanding the role is. This is something Pascal has been quite transparent about over the years. While he does accredit the initial collaboration on the role of Din Djarin to his “limited time on set” in season 1, Pascal also cites physical difficulties as another reason for it in a 2023 interview with Variety.

[Being in the suit for season 2 was] very physically demanding in a way that, number one, the show needs to get shot
, […] and it didn’t seem true to be concerned with Din Djarin’s face, and being really economical if it was gonna get done, then for it to have the most amount of impact. I would much rather the show work than betray it to any kind of human need to be seen.

Pascal also emphasizes how the role of Din Djarin goes far beyond being physically seen as an actor, especially when the character’s face is hidden from sight most of the time. Because of Din Djarin’s helmet rule, Pascal isn’t required to be on set in the suit all the time, and he implies here that having him in the armor rather than someone like Wayne or Crowder would increase both the time and the difficulty it takes to get the show shot. Pascal has gone into more depth on the physical difficulties of this role, and the help he requires.

Din Djarin

Din Djarin was once a lone bounty who has since tasked himself with raising his adopted son and Mandalorian apprentice, Grogu. Born on Aq Vetina and raised on Concordia by the Mandalorian faction the Children of the Watch, Din is an orphan and Mandalorian foundling who has risked both his life and his Mandalorian Creed to protect Grogu. Djarin has become an important part of the galaxy’s fight against the Imperial Remnant that lingers in the wake of the Empire’s fall, as he is now working under-the-table for the fledgling New Republic’s rangers.

Alias: Mando
Alliance: Mandalorians
Race: Mandalorian

Pedro Pascal Needs Help With The Mandalorian’s Physicality

The Physical Difficulties Can Be Too Much

Pascal went more in depth on the physical stress of the role in his 2020 podcast interview with The Darkest Timeline With Ken Jeong & Joel McHale. Not only did he share his gratitude for the work that Wayne, Crowder, and others all do in his place, but he also went into detail on the drawbacks to being inside Din Djarin’s suit of armor day-in and day-out. While he maintained quite a comedic edge, Pascal was candid about his struggles, which included limited visibility, difficulty breathing, and even skin that was rubbed raw from taking his helmet on and off.

Thank God there’s other guys in the suit. But to be honest, and without giving any of it away, there was more that I did in season 2 […] there’s ‘I’m pretty sure I need an MRI,’ and… you can’t really see. Sometimes you can’t breathe. If they want to catch your dialogue, it’s a big mic pack that’s pushed up against your skull inside the [helmet], and you take it on and off about seventy times in one day, and there’s the constant sort of rubbed raw—there’s a physical aspect of it. It’s fascinating to be under that kind of physical stress, […] but for it to go into such a complete version of that kind of experience is really challenging.

This would be difficult for any actor to tackle, but it’s especially difficult for someone like Pascal, who already struggles with a chronic injury. Pascal revealed to Flaunt a few years ago that he still struggles with back pain that likely originated on the set of Game of Thrones, when he was tasked with performing as many stunts as possible. This was aggravated by his work on Kingsman: The Golden Circle, leading to what has since become a potentially herniated disk. This no doubt makes it even harder for Pascal to suit up as Din Djarin in The Mandalorian.

Pascal plays Oberyn Martell in
Game of Thrones
and Jack “Agent Whiskey” Daniels in
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
, the latter of which saw him collaborate with Crowder on stunts years before
The Mandalorian
.

Din Djarin (helmeted) and Grogu with his silver shifter knob, edited over a clock

When Each Season Of The Mandalorian Came Out & When They Were Filmed

The Mandalorian premiered in 2019 and has since run for three seasons. Here’s when each season was released, and when were they all filmed.

This Arrangement Helps To Keep Pedro Pascal On Board

Now He Can Focus on Providing Din Djarin’s Voice

Pedro Pascal recording lines for The Mandalorian

Between scheduling and the high physical demand of the role, Pascal’s arrangement with the other Din Djarin actors helps to keep him in the role. Pascal still has quite a say in the character, whether he’s physically present on set during filming or not, which is something he and The Mandalorian showrunners have made clear on several occasions. Much of this decision-making occurs in pre- and post-production, when initial story decisions are being made and when dialogue is being recorded and pieced together.

While it still may be disappointing for some viewers to know that Pascal isn’t in the suit as often as they would hope, audiences can rest assured that Pascal is still very involved in who Din Djarin is as a character. The baseline for Din’s physicality was set during season 1, which saw Pascal work directly with Wayne and Crowder to establish the type of mannerisms and overall performance that Pascal and the showrunners were envisioning. This is what has since made the character seamless, which will continue as The Mandalorian and its story continues.

The Mandalorian

4.0

The Mandalorian is set after the Empire’s fall and before the First Order’s emergence in the ever-growing Star Wars universe. The series follows the travails of a lone gunfighter named Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the New Republic. Acting as the first live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian has become incredibly popular on Disney+, partly due to Mando’s relationship with Grogu, which the internet dubbed “Baby Yoda” upon his introduction in season 1.

Release Date: November 12, 2019
Seasons: 3
Streaming Service(s): Disney+

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