Star Wars: Why Mandalorians never remove their helmets

The new Star Wars Disney+ show, The Mandalorian, has quickly become a fan favorite, and fans are curious to learn more about the religion, including why they never remove their helmets.

Since its release with the launch of Disney+ a few weeks ago, The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars series has caught the fan base by storm, and fans are curious to learn as much as they can as the mysterious titular character.

Not only that, but fans are interested in the background of the Mandalorian religion itself, as they are clearly well renowned around the galaxy as fearsome warriors with interesting beliefs, including that they may never remove their helmets.

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Previously, Mandalorian characters such as Jango Fett in Attack of the Clones and Sabine Wren from Star Wars Rebels are shown without their helmets quite a bit, but the show has taken steps to address why Mando, played by Pedro Pascal, and the rest of his covenant does not.

In Episode 3 of the series “The Sin” , Mando is asked by the Armorer “Have you ever removed your helmet” or “has it ever been removed by others?”, both of which he denies, after which they both say “This is the Way”, reaffirming that they are correctly following the Mandalorian code.

Mandalorians are not one particular race of species, and their religion is a way of life all may join if they are willing to follow the code, so the point of the helmet is to signify that they are in fact Mandalorian and not what the appear as underneath the helmet.

They also mention in the same episode that only one Mandalorian may leave their covenant one at a time, to further hide their numbers to confuse outsiders on who is who and how many followers there actually are.

Despite saying that he never removes his helmet, Mando do in fact do it in Episode 4“Sanctuary”, and when asked about if he ever takes it off, he does clarify what his code actually is.

When asked how long it has been since he last took his helmet off, Mando states that he removed it “yesterday”, but has not removed it in front of someone else since he was a child, presumably some time after he was taken in by the Mandalorians as a “foundling” after his parents were killed.

Once he is alone, he does in fact remove his helmet to eat, although it is only once he is alone, and his face is still not shown on-screen.

Later on, a new character, Cara Dune (Gina Carano), as “what happens if you take that thing off?”, and Mando says that nothing happens, but “You just can’t ever put it back on again”, signifying that once someone does this it, breaks their code and they are no longer a member of that religion.

This explains why characters like Jango Fett and Sabine Wren are willing to reveal their faces to others, as they are no longer strict followers of the Mandalorian Way, as Jango left to let the Republic use him as a clone template and Sabine joined the rebellion to fight the Empire.

At least through the first four episodes, Mando has yet to reveal his face in front of others, including the child he has risked his life to rescue, or the villagers he helped save, as he still intends to be faithful to the Mandalorians, who raised him after his parents were murdered.

While things may change in future episodes, for now, This is the Way.

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The Mandalorian is currently streaming on Disney+.

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