Opinion editor Michileen Martin theorizes The Mandalorian's third season may be preparing us for Katee Sackhoff to replace Pedro Pascal as the primary protagonist of the series.
Am I the only one who feels like The Mandalorian is preparing us to say goodbye to Pedro Pascal? No, I’m not suggesting Din Djarin would be recast, but that someone else may become the main hero of Disney+‘s flagship series. Specifically, it’s starting to feel like Season 3 is preparing us for Katee Sackhoff to take over as series lead as Bo-Katan Kryze.
The first reason I think The Mandalorian could be saying goodbye to Pedro Pascal soon is that, in spite of making us wait two years for a new season — and with now half of the new season already out of the way — the Star Wars show seems to be focusing on just about everyone but Din Djarin; with Bo-Katan in particular taking center stage.
Before its release, trailers for The Mandalorian‘s third season seemed to hint at Bo-Katan playing the role of antagonist this time around. It was a sense helped by her fury at the end of Season 2 when Din Djarin wins the Darksaber from Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). But now, with half The Mandalorian‘s third season streaming, Katee Sackhoff’s hero is starting to feel like, at the very least, on equal footing with Pedro Pascal’s.
Really, so far The Mandalorian season premiere has been the only episode that finds Pedro Pascal as the main focus. The plot of episode 2 revolved around his quest on Mandalore, but the emotional climax of the episode came with Bo-Katan saving him (twice) and her vision of the Mythosaur. Episode 3, as many have already commented, felt like a return to Andor with most of the story following Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi) and Elia (Katy M. O’Brian) but ends with the surprise conversion of Bo-Katan to “the way,” after she’d previously expressed nothing but derision for Djarin’s covert.
There won’t be any real spoilers here, but the most recent episode of The Mandalorian, “Chapter 20: The Foundling,” finds Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan once again taking over Pedro Pascal’s usual role of the story focus. When a foundling is snatched away by a massive flying monster, Bo-Katan leads a war party from the covert to rescue him, including Din Djarin. He’s there, he’s in the plot, and he’s in the fight, but narratively “The Foundling” is Bo-Katan’s show.
The second reason I think The Mandalorian could see Katee Sackhoff replace Pedro Pascal as the lead is because of an interesting little blip of year-old news that many have either overlooked or forgotten. In a tweet that has long since been deleted, Ming-Na Wen — who plays Fennec Shand in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett — congratulated Sackhoff on getting her own Star Wars series. Could it be that whatever Wen prematurely tweeted about wasn’t an upcoming spinoff, but The Mandalorian itself?
Third and finally, there is the simple fact that Bo-Katan feels like a character with much more promise than Din Djarin. Where can The Mandalorian take Pedro Pascal’s character from here? He completed his quest to return Grogu to the Jedi, accepted his role as father figure to Grogu, took Grogu back, got booted out of the covert, and took a bath to get his club membership back.
Plot-wise, there’s always plenty to do in Star Wars, but character-wise, Din Djarin feels like he’s dinging the ceiling. Faceless, quiet types only have so much character growth potential. There’s a reason why Boba Fett had fewer lines in the original trilogy than Chewie.
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