I think it's safe to say the kickoff of Disney+ was a massive success, with Disney touting more than 10M sign-ups on the first day. It's probably a sure bet that many of those folks were eager for The Mandalorian, a brand new Star Wars series with a lead character we've never met before. Or have we? Some have speculated the man under the armor is one we're quite familiar with, like maybe Boba Fett? Or someone else in the Fett clan?
Well, star Pedro Pascal put that speculation to bed in a new ScreenSlam video, where he reveals his character's name. Nope, not a Fett in sight...
“The Mandalorian, whose name is Dyn Jarren, is your iconically cool, flawed, mysterious, loner gunslinger that harkens to the best of the samurai movies and westerns,” said Pascal.
“In talking with Jon [Favreau], I was asking him what I should be looking at?” added Pascal. “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.”
As I said in my recap, The Mandalorian definitely nails the space Western vibe, and Kurosawa is clearly an influence.
The point is that The Mandalorian is treading new ground with new characters and that's tremendously exciting. But as we saw with the first episode's shocking finale, there will be secrets and mysteries that will also expand on the universe we know. This should be a lot of fun.
The next episode of The Mandalorian is tomorrow, November 15th.
