Pedro Pascal Reportedly Wants The Mandalorian To Ditch His Helmet
The Pedro Pascal rumors surrounding The Mandalorian continue to fly.
This article is more than 2 years old
Pedro Pascal has been dogged by rumors about his dissatisfaction with a certain element about The Mandalorian. Is it a rumor or is it a reality? Seems the hit Disney series The Mandalorian has had a bit of controversy added to all its excitement. This controversy all stems from a helmet and what can or can’t be seen.
We have covered these rumors about Pedro Pascal in the past when they originally reared their head and even when they were refuted. How has the story developed up to this point?
The rumor is that Pedro Pascal wants to ditch his Mando helmet. Not full time but enough so that his face gets some air. Again, this is a rumor, but according to rumor queen YouTuber Grace Randolph via Cosmic Book News, she claims Pascal left the production of The Mandalorian halfway through season 2.
In her own words, Randolph claims, “While filming Season 2, Pedro Pascal really wanted to have some scenes with his helmet off. The Mandalorian creative team wouldn’t budge on this. So Pedro Pascal, from what I’ve heard from two sources now, was frustrated about this and also was pretty darn uncomfortable in the Mando suit on set. So, he became difficult.”
Take this all with a grain of salt, please. Randolph continued, “The final straw was that he went to Lucasfilm, from what I’ve heard from my sources, to try and get them to intervene on his behalf. And you combine that with Lucasfilm already trying to get involved with story aspects of Season 2, which I’ve also heard. Including focusing more on standalone episodes rather than making them more connected, which I’ve heard The Mandalorian creative team wanted to do, which was kind of happening at the end of Season 1,” she claimed. “So, when Pedro Pascal went to Lucasfilm, the Mando team was like, ‘You know what, you should just go.’ And Pedro Pascal did. And that happened halfway through filming.”
In an effort to verify these claims, YouTuber Overlord Doomcock chimed in via Boundingintocomics with his “sources” claim. “According to this source, one of our most reliable insiders, there is indeed a problem with Pedro Pascal. Pedro has felt very frustrated at being hidden a mask and wanting more face time on the show.”
He then went on to state, “My source claims that Pedro Pascal was jealous over Gina Carano and Baby Yoda getting all the attention when he is the actual star of the show and this did indeed led to some friction.”
Doomcock also brought in a couple of other sources to take things a bit further. “So my initial source admitted that Pedro Pascal was unhappy with the mask situation, but claimed it wasn’t as ugly as Randolph had depicted it. Pascal never went to Kathleen Kennedy as the claims say.” He went on, “According to my source, Kennedy is completely marginalized as far as The Mandalorian goes. She has no power to change anything Favreau and Filoni want to do at this point. So any suggestions that Pascal wanted to get Kathleen Kennedy to intercede for him a reportedly bogus.”
Of course, there are counters to these big claims. One comes from Brendan Wayne (grandson of screen legend John Wayne) who plays Pedro Pascal’s body and stunt double. “The great thing about him is he’s not impressed with himself,” Wayne explained to Vulture. “He’s just an actor. And I mean that in the good way, not the bad way. He likes to learn and he likes to collaborate and he’s very good at it.”
Another counter comes from Phil Szostak, the creative art manager for LucasFilm, who was given a Mando set tour back in February. He elaborated in his following tweet.
So, what is reality and what isn’t? According to Doomcock, a solution has been found. “Well, my new source claims the situation is resolved all right. Pedro Pascal will not be returning to the set of The Mandalorian. From Season 3 onward he will only be recording lines for The Mandalorian. He will no longer be appearing on camera. It will be someone else in the suit.”
Why that may be the simplest of solutions (just like Star Wars did with Darth Vader and James Earl Jones), we are not sure if this solution is reality. It’ll be interesting to see who wins this tug-of-war.
