Spoiler alert: The following article contains light spoilers for The Mandalorian’s fourth episode.
- The fourth episode of The Mandalorian revealed more about the character’s past, and why he doesn’t take off his helmet.
- If he ever does take that helmet off, the last decade has given us an idea of the actor underneath.
- You definitely recognize Pedro Pascal, who plays The Mandalorian, from Game of Thrones, but he’s got a lot more on his resumé as well.
While we haven’t yet seen the face of the titular protagonist of The Mandalorian on Disney+, the show’s fourth episode further explored the idea of his identity. What does he look like? Does he ever take off his helmet? Many questions abound, but chief among them is something a little more abstract: Who is The Mandalorian? We know that he’s played by former Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal (who has seen his star greatly rise in the last half decade), and when he eventually has his helmet removed, by hook or by crook, we’ll have an idea of what to expect.
In the show’s fourth episode, we learned a little bit about The Mandalorian‘s helmet: he does take it off to eat, and presumably other things, like…showering? We have to assume. But he hasn’t taken the helmet off in front of someone else since he was a child. As Mando explains in this latest episode, the flashbacks we’ve been seeing of his childhood saw his parents killed, and him being taken in by the Mandalorian people—a community and family he was happy to find (“This is the way,” he again repeats).
When asked what would happen if he ever did take the helmet off in front of someone else, the answer is simple, to the point, and based around a strict moral code: if he took that helmet off in front of someone else, he could never go back. This fourth episode marked the halfway point of the series, and the idea of removing that helmet has already been broached a few times; clearly it’s a theme the show will continue to touch on. When it does, it’s exciting to know that Pascal is both a familiar face, and a talented performer to keep viewers on their toes.
So who is The Mandalorian?
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So, while there’s still much to learn about the character of The Mandalorian (and we surely will continue to in the show’s remaining four episodes), we already do know quite a bit about the man under the helmet, Pedro Pascal.
Pascal has already shown off his infectious charm in the Star Wars series, coming across as endearing and funny even with the majority of his scenes shared with a puppet, and all of them coming through a voice modifier from underneath a helmet. The actor has been a staple of film and TV in recent years too: you’ve almost certainly seen him in movies like Triple Frontier or Kingsman: The Golden Circle, or in TV show’s like Netflix’s Narcos. There’s also that other thing, too: his single-season Game of Thrones character, Oberyn Martell, is one of the greatest in the show’s run.
HBO
Yup, that guy. You remember him.
But, anyway, the buck isn’t stopping for Pascal with The Mandalorian; nope, he’s got another major, high-profile role in the pipeline already. He’ll appear as villain Max Lord in next summer’s Wonder Woman 1984, and as a superhero in director Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, Planet Terror)‘s new film.
Pascal has already impressed underneath the helmet in The Mandalorian, and whether he entirely continues underneath there, or manages to figure out a way to show the world his face….well, we’ll continue watching regardless.