Pedro Pascal will be missed in The Mandalorian Season 4 after Disney continues filming the series without the beloved actor.
Star Wars has had quite a rocky set of years when it comes to live-action. Disney’s sequel trilogy didn’t land how people thought it would, with most fans being disappointed with where the trilogy went. After the Sequel Trilogy, Lucasfilm has been trying to win back fans, but the studio hasn’t released another Star Wars movie since Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (2019) came out in theaters.
Instead, Disney focused all of their efforts on bringing Star Wars to Disney+, and while the franchise has had a lot of success with The Mandalorian, Andor, and Ahsoka, fans are still unconvinced that Star Wars is in a better place. One thing that hasn’t helped is that the Star Wars series might be more consistent than the Sequel Trilogy, but some of the decisions have left the series to be fun and exciting but not have the best writing.
The Mandalorian Season 3 wasn’t really the story that fans wanted to see after having Din Djarin take Grogu back in The Book of Boba Fett. A lot of the season felt like Disney wanted to tie a lot of the loose threads from the past several years and set the series onto a new course. Killing off Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon so soon was a shock to some, but it seems that the villain was never meant to be the big bad for Lucasfilm’s next major crossover. While the finale was good, it also felt like Pascal’s Din Djarin wasn’t in the spotlight anymore when Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan Kryze again joined the ensemble cast.
Fans realized after the directors stated that the title opens up the possibility for others to take over the role of “The Mandalorian” that Din Djarin’s time in the spotlight could be sparse in the future and it seems that everyone’s worries might suddenly come true. Star Wars continues creating more projects connected to The Mandalorian, with Jon Watt’s mysterious Skeleton Crew releasing later next year which will supposedly connect to the “Mandoverse” movie. Now that the SAG-AFTRA strikes are over, Disney can start work on filming, but there’s a reason why Pedro Pascal might not be involved. Due to scheduling conflicts, Pedro Pascal will be too busy to return for The Mandalorian Season 4 and won’t step foot on set for filming after all.
According to the Bespin Bulletin, Pascal will likely record his lines later on for Din Djarin but will be too busy filming The Last of Us Season 2 and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel to be available for The Mandalorian:
It’s also worth mentioning that leading man, Pedro Pascal, likely won’t take part in filming, just like season three, due to his commitments to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2, which is due to begin filming over the next few weeks and Pascal’s commitment to the second season of The Last of Us, which is slated to begin filming in the Spring of 2024.
While fans won’t be happy about this, it’s obviously not confirmed by Disney, but it makes sense. For some reason, Disney wants to keep Din Djarin from taking off his helmet anymore, and it’s cheaper to have Pascal voice lines for them. Sadly, it cuts costs on a quite expensive series, which shouldn’t be an excuse. Some might say it gives more room for Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan to take over, which might very well happen, but fans do know it won’t be the last time Pedro Pascal is on the screen as Din Djarin.
Dave Filoni’s “Mandoverse” movie is still in the works, and it’s very clear that Din Djarin, Ahsoka Tano, and other characters from the Disney+ series will be joining the fight against Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) after he returns to the galaxy. The Star Wars universe has been using bounty hunters such as Fennec Shand, Jedi, and New Republic pilots such as Carson Teva to set up this next adventure. The fourth season will likely tie into the events of Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka as the galaxy has to face the reformed Galactic Empire once again. Star Wars fans will be excited to see how Thrawn’s story is handled. Still, it’s hard to see how Din Djarin and his series will fit into the bigger story being told by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni even if Pedro Pascal won’t join for every adventure in person.
