Director explains how Pedro contributes to the narrative of The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian‘s success lies in the powerful father and son bond between its lead character Din Djarin, and his son, Grogu. Rachel Morrison, one of the directors of The Mandalorian Season 3, explained in an interview with Collider the ways in which Pedro Pascal contributes to the series via his voiceover work, and how this helps enrich Din and Grogu’s scenes.

Morrison discussed how she went about the process of deriving emotions out of Din Djarin and Grogu during their scenes together, an important part of trying to convey the depth of their growing bond on screen. Djarin, who’s voiced and sometimes even played by Pascal, and Grogu, a puppet, have formed a heartwarming bond on screen, and Morrison explained how Pedro ensures this by pre-recording his lines before the season, as well as doing a final recording once the filming is completed.

"“So I wanted to be able to try to answer it for myself, knowing obviously that these first couple of seasons are working, so somehow they are getting emotion and character despite these challenges. To answer your question, Pedro pre-taped — they do a first pass of the script, so you have some sense of what’s being said and kind of the intonation and inflection, all of that and how it’s all working, and we’re pre-vizing things. We’re working a lot out before we actually get in there. But then you also have the benefit of, it’s like a Christmas of ADR. You can always change the lines later, which is not something you get to do in most circumstances. So I think that’s a nice cushion to fall back on.”"

The process of pre-recording lines comes in handy on set even when Pedro isn’t around. This is particularly useful for his stunt and body doubles Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne in visualizing Din’s posture, how and where he’s stands, and gives the directors a better idea of how to present what’s written in the script on-screen for the audience. His voiceover work becomes a guide not only for the men in the suit, but for the directors on set, according to Rachel Morrison.

Although Pascal has been criticized at times for doing nothing but the voicework on the show, that too is of extreme importance to how the character goes about his business on screen, and serves an important role in bringing the character and his personality to life. Pascal did contribute a lot to the role physically in Season 2, but was largely absent for the 1st and 3rd seasons of the series. Hopefully, he’s more present for Season 4 as well.

The Mandalorian is streaming now on Disney+.