Mandalorian (character)
Din Djarin, known as The Mandalorian, or Mando for short, is a character in the Star Wars franchise, who appears as the titular protagonist of the Disney+ television series The Mandalorian and also appears in its spin-off The Book of Boba Fett. Orphaned as a young child, The Mandalorian was adopted into the Mandalorian culture and trained as a warrior, later becoming a bounty hunter and taking the title of his people as a sobriquet. The character is rarely seen without his silver beskar helmet, which he is forbidden by creed to remove publicly.
The Mandalorian creator and showrunner Jon Favreau created the character, partially inspired by Clint Eastwood and his Man with No Name character in the Spaghetti Western Dollars Trilogy films directed by Sergio Leone. The samurai films of Akira Kurosawa were another inspiration, and Star Wars protagonist Han Solo also influenced the character's portrayal. The Mandalorian is portrayed by Pedro Pascal. Favreau approached him for the role, and close friend and fellow actor Oscar Isaac, who portrays Poe Dameron in various Star Wars media, encouraged him to accept the part.
Originally hired to capture Grogu, a Force-sensitive infant of the same species as Yoda, the Mandalorian instead protects him from a remnant of the fallen Galactic Empire and becomes a father figure for him. The dynamic between the Mandalorian and Grogu embodies a theme of parenting and fatherhood prevalent throughout The Mandalorian. The character and Pascal's performance was well received by critics, although some criticism was directed at the fact that Pascal's face is constantly concealed by the costume, comparing him to Master Chief from Halo.
Appearances
Backstory
The Mandalorian's birth name is Din Djarin, though that is not revealed until "Chapter 8: Redemption", the first-season finale of The Mandalorian. Aspects of the character's backstory are provided gradually throughout the show. As a child, his parents are killed during an attack by battle droids affiliated with the Separatist Alliance during the Clone Wars. Multiple civilians are killed during the attack, and Djarin's parents hide him just before dying in an explosion. Djarin himself is rescued by a tribe of Mandalorian warriors, and he is later adopted into their culture as a "foundling", an orphan raised in the Mandalorian tradition despite not coming from the planet of Mandalore. He joins a tribe led by the Armorer, and the clan is forced into hiding due to persecution at the hands of the Galactic Empire.The Mandalorian never removes his helmet in front of others, according to the creed of his tribe and is seen as a betrayal worthy of expulsion; other characters from different Mandalorian tribes in other Star Wars works have been depicted as able to remove their helmets without it affecting their status. This inconsistency is later resolved in "Chapter 11: The Heiress", where it is discovered the Mandalorian and his tribe are, specifically, "Child of the Watch", a sect of Mandalorian religious zealots who follows "the Way ", which mainstream Mandalorian society does not. The Mandalorian eventually becomes a bounty hunter and joins the Bounty Hunters' Guild, and becomes widely known by the nickname "Mando". At some point before the events of The Mandalorian, he works with a group of mercenaries that include Ran Malk, Xi'an, and Qin. He eventually splits from this group under non-amicable circumstances, for which they blame him. The Mandalorian pilots a gunship called the Razor Crest, and one of his primary weapons is an Amban sniper rifle, which has a prong-shaped barrel that fires bursts powerful enough to disintegrate its targets. The events of The Mandalorian begin five years after the conclusion of the original trilogy in the film Return of the Jedi.
Season One
In the series premiere, the Mandalorian accepts a commission from Bounty Hunters' Guild leader Greef Karga to collect a 50-year-old "asset" for a mysterious unnamed Client, who represents a remnant of the now-fallen Galactic Empire. The Mandalorian tracks the asset to Arvala-7, where he is aided by the Ugnaught farmer Kuiil. After reluctantly partnering with the bounty hunter droid IG-11, the Mandalorian discovers that the asset is an infant seemingly from Yoda's species, known as "the Child". In "Chapter 2: The Child", the Mandalorian is nearly killed by a large Mudhorn creature, but the Child uses the Force to help the Mandalorian to kill it. The Mandalorian successfully delivers the Child to the Client on the planet Nevarro in "Chapter 3: The Sin".Later, the Mandalorian has an uncharacteristic change of heart and returns to the Client's base to rescue the Child. On the way back to the Razor Crest, the Mandalorian is ambushed by Greef and other Guild members, but he escapes Nevarro after receiving aid from other Mandalorians from his tribe. While hiding from bounty hunters seeking him and the Child, the Mandalorian takes several missions to make ends meet. They include protecting a Sorgan village from raiders in "Chapter 4: Sanctuary", capturing the assassin Fennec Shand on Tatooine in "Chapter 5: The Gunslinger", and a prison raid with Ran Malk's mercenaries, led by Migs Mayfeld, in "Chapter 6: The Prisoner".
In the penultimate first-season episode, Greef contacts the Mandalorian and says the Client's troops have overrun his town. Greef promises to cancel the bounty on the Mandalorian if he helps eliminate the Client. The Mandalorian recruits several allies for the mission, including Kuiil, IG-11, and ex-Rebel shock trooper Cara Dune. However, when they confront the Client on Nevarro, they are ambushed by Moff Gideon and his death trooper-led regiment, who kill The Client and trap the Mandalorian's allies. Gideon reveals secret details about each of them, including the Mandalorian's birth name, "Din Djarin", confirming that Gideon was involved in a past assault against the Mandalorians known as the "Purge of Mandalore."
Kuiil is killed, and the Mandalorian is severely injured during a gunfight with Gideon's forces in the season finale. IG-11 briefly removes the Mandalorian's helmet to tend to his wounds, revealing his face for the first time in the show. The Mandalorian and his allies seek help from the Mandalorian's tribe, only to find Imperials have wiped out the covert. They find the tribe's leader, the Armorer, who formally adopts the Child into the Mandalorian culture as a foundling. She instructs the Mandalorian to seek out and deliver the Child to the others of his kind, and says the Mandalorian will be like a father to him. IG-11 sacrifices himself to help the others escape, and the Mandalorian fends off a final attack by Gideon before departing from Nevarro with the Child.
Season Two
In the second season, the character searches for other Mandalorians to help him find the Child's people: the Jedi. In "Chapter 9: The Marshal", he learns of a Mandalorian supposedly living on Tatooine from his contact, Gor Koresh. On Tatooine, the Mandalorian meets Cobb Vanth, the Marshal of Mos Pelgo, who is wearing Mandalorian armor bought from Jawas, which he had been using to protect the townspeople from various threats. Although the two are initially at odds, as the Mandalorian demands Vanth to give him the armor, they become reluctant allies when Mos Pelgo is attacked by a krayt dragon, which the Mandalorian agrees to help slay in exchange for Vanth's armor. Along the way, the Mandalorian and Vanth develop a genuine friendship and form an uneasy alliance between the townspeople of Mos Pelgo and a tribe of Tusken Raiders to kill the dragon. Afterward, the Mandalorian retrieves Vanth's armor, and the two part on good terms.In "Chapter 10: The Passenger", the Mandalorian takes on a mission to take a contact, "Frog Lady", and her eggs from Tatooine to Trask, in exchange for a lead on other Mandalorians. During their journey, they are intercepted by two X-wing pilots from the New Republic, who have an arrest warrant for the Mandalorian for his role in the prison break from "Chapter 6", but they end up saving them from a swarm of spider-like creatures on Maldo Kreis, where they crash-landed, and the charges are dropped against the Mandalorian. After fixing the Razor Crest to the point of barely being able to fly, the Mandalorian completes his mission and brings the Frog Lady to Trask in "Chapter 11: The Heiress", whereupon her husband directs him to an inn from where he learns about three Mandalorians spotted on the moon. A crew of Quarrens offers to lead him to them but ends up betraying and attempting to kill him and the Child for the Mandalorian's armor. The pair are saved by the three Mandalorians, led by Bo-Katan Kryze, the former ruler of Mandalore, who lost both her planet and the Darksaber to Moff Gideon. The Mandalorian initially distrusts her, but he nonetheless agrees to help her and her team raid an Imperial freighter for stolen Mandalorian relics in exchange for a lead on the Jedi. Following the heist, Bo-Katan tells the Mandalorian to seek out her old Jedi ally, Ahsoka Tano, on Corvus.
In "Chapter 12: The Siege", the Mandalorian reunites on Nevarro with Greef Karga and Cara Dune, who have since turned the planet around, and agrees to help them raid the last Imperial base on the planet in exchange for repairs to the Razor Crest. During the raid, they stumble upon cloning experiments performed by Imperial scientists, involving the Child's blood, some of which has already been transfused to the clones to supposedly give them Force-sensitivity. Before they can learn more, they are forced to destroy the base and escape from the pursuing Imperial forces.
In "Chapter 13: The Jedi", with the Razor Crest repaired, the Mandalorian travels to Corvus and is brought before Morgan Elsbeth, the Imperial Magistrate of the city of Calidan, who hires him to kill Ahsoka. Under the guise of accepting the bounty, the Mandalorian tracks down Ahsoka, who uses the Force to commune with the Child, learning that his name is Grogu, that he is a former Jedi youngling who was rescued from the Jedi Temple on Coruscant during the Great Jedi Purge, and that he has been suppressing his Force powers over the years to survive. With Ahsoka reluctant to train Grogu because of his strong attachment to the Mandalorian, the latter helps Ahsoka defeat Elsbeth and liberate Calidan in the hopes of changing her mind. Although still reluctant, Ahsoka points the Mandalorian to a Jedi Temple on Tython, where Grogu might reach out to another Jedi through the Force and choose his destiny.
In "Chapter 14: The Tragedy", the Mandalorian takes Grogu to the Jedi Temple and leaves him to meditate. He is confronted by Boba Fett, the original owner of the Mandalorian armor he retrieved from Vanth, and his new partner, Fennec Shand, whom Fett had rescued after she was left to die in "Chapter 5". The Mandalorian agrees to trade the armor for Grogu's safety, but the group is attacked by Gideon's Imperial remnant, which has followed the Mandalorian via a tracking beacon that had been placed on the Razor Crest during its repairs on Nevarro. Despite assistance from Fett and Shand, Grogu is captured by Gideon's forces, and the Razor Crest is destroyed by an orbital strike from Gideon's cruiser. Looking for additional allies to help him rescue Grogu, the Mandalorian meets with Cara Dune and asks her to release Mayfeld, who has been sent to a New Republic prison after his capture in "Chapter 6".
In "Chapter 15: The Believer", the Mandalorian and Mayfeld, whom Cara has temporarily remanded into her custody, infiltrate a hidden Imperial rhydonium refinery on Morak disguised as Imperial soldiers to discover Moff Gideon's whereabouts. During their mission, the Mandalorian is forced to remove his helmet to access the terminal with Gideon's coordinates. After Mayfeld blows their cover by killing his former commanding officer for callously dismissing the victims of Operation: Cinder, he and the Mandalorian make their escape, boarding Fett's gunship, Slave I, before Mayfeld destroys the refinery with a well-placed sniper shot. Cara promises to report that he was killed as a reward for his assistance, and Mayfeld leaves the group. Afterward, the Mandalorian sends Gideon a threatening message, in which he twists Gideon's words from "Chapter 7" and vows to rescue Grogu.
In "Chapter 16: The Rescue", the Mandalorian raids Gideon's cruiser to rescue Grogu, joined by his allies, as well as Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian warriors, to whom he promised to help liberate Mandalore from Imperial occupation in return. For the team to breach the hangar, they are helped by Boba Fett who stages an assault on the stolen Imperial Shuttle where the crew was. They successfully breach the hangar. While his allies go for the ship's command bridge, the Mandalorian searches for Grogu, narrowly defeating one of Gideon's Dark Troopers and launching the rest into space. Afterward, he confronts Gideon, who is holding the child hostage. Gideon offers to hand Grogu over if the Mandalorian lets him escape and keep the Darksaber, but then betrays and attempts to kill him. The Mandalorian rescues Grogu and overpowers Gideon, thus becoming the rightful owner of the Darksaber. Unaware of wielding the Darksaber, the Mandalorian enters the command bridge where Bo-Katan and crew were waiting. It was revealed that one who wields the Darksaber after combat becomes the rightful ruler of Mandalore. Before Bo-Katan and the Mandalorian engage in battle, they are interrupted by the Dark Troopers' return. They are swiftly destroyed by Luke Skywalker, a Jedi who responded to Grogu's call on Tython and offers to take the child to be trained as a Jedi. During an emotional farewell, the Mandalorian removes his helmet to let the child see his face for the first time. He then tearfully watches as Grogu departs with Skywalker.