Now that The Mandalorian is out in the wild – for those in the U.S., Canada, and the Netherlands, at least – Star Wars fans are poring over every last detail of the show’s pilot episode, searching for potential clues about what comes next for Pedro Pascal’s titular bounty hunter.
And while the live-action series – the first in Star Wars‘ history – got things off to a flyer, viewers have been left to ponder over the true identity of the titular hero… until now. While doing press rounds for the much-hyped TV series, Pascal himself seemingly let slip about the character’s name. And no, before you ask, it’s no one we know; nor are they connected to some pre-existing family tree within this ever-expanding Star Wars universe.
In short, the Mandalorian’s name is Dyn Jarin (or perhaps Din Jarren?), after Pedro Pascal told ScreenSlam about the inspiration behind his titular outlaw, before announcing his actual name.
He’s your iconically cool, flawed, mysterious, loner gunslinger that harkens to the best of the samurai movies and the westerns,” Pascal said about the character. “In talking to Jon I asked what I should be looking at. I know he loves movies, I love movies. ‘What would you like me to watch?’ I asked him. He immediately brought up Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo… He’s very samurai, Clint (Eastwood), and me.
It should come as no surprise that director Jon Favreau sought inspiration from old-school Western movies while developing The Mandalorian – after all, Star Wars was originally pitched as a space Western – and later in the interview, Pascal spoke more about bringing some sense of emotional weight to a character draped in armor.
Via ScreenSlam:
Just wedge me into those two iconic characters because he’s also, I love the opportunity to make him as human and accessible as possible, which is strange to say because it’s hard to get to him because he’s covered in armor from head to toe. But the idea is that he’s relatable, we’re all kind of covered in our own armor and terrified of taking that armor off, and that’s the thing that really crosses him over into a character that we’re all really going to want to follow.
The Mandalorian‘s second episode is scheduled to drop this Friday, November 15th, followed by a weekly installment leading up to the season finale on December 27th.
