This post contains mild spoilers for The Mandalorian.
As Disney+ continues to stream its first live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, there has been an open flow of behind the scenes documentation – from the eye-wateringly good concept art for each episode that appears during the credits, to interviews with the series’ carefully-selected directors.
Bryce Dallas Howard directed the fourth episode of the series, ‘Sanctuary’, which sees the titular bounty hunter meet a group of peaceful villagers in full crisis mode. It’s all very Seven Samurai, and also managed to spawn about a million memes in its aftermath. If you consider yourself to be an even marginally ‘online’ person, chances are you’ve seen a lot of them by now.
Turns out Mandolorian star Pedro Pascal wasn’t around for that episode, though, as he had a pretty busy schedule by the time filming on Jon Favreau’s pricey Star Wars project got underway.
“He was in rehearsals for King Lear on Broadway,” Howard admitted in an interview with Vulture. “And so, while we were doing my episode, I wasn’t working with Pedro.”
Nope, episode 4 (at least) gave Pascal’s doubles – Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder – the floor. Hollywood already flows in Wayne’s veins, as he’s the grandson of John Wayne. He’s been Pascal’s double on every episode of The Mandalorian, and is already back in the suit on season 2.
“[Wayne] absolutely just brought everything to that character, and we were able to find the moments and figure them out together,” she said.
Wayne added “[Pascal] would ask me, and I would ask him the same question, which is, ‘Why did you move like this during that moment?’ We would go back and forth. The great thing about him is he’s not impressed with himself. 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.”
Pascal has always been the voice of Mando, though, recording dialogue later if he needs to.
Disney+ launches in the UK in March, replacing the current DisneyLife app.
