Pedro Pascal on 'The Mandalorian and Grogu's relationship evolution | Interview

It all, you know, is tailored for that experience and those memories that we have of the big screen Star Wars experience. Younger people will watch it as Baby Yoda's on it, and all of a sudden, it becomes their thing. This is so exciting, because last time I saw you, I was pregnant, and now this is my first interview out of maternity. Congratulations. And this is kind of like your, you know, this is your baby, Grogu. But he's been my baby for a while. He has. However, you're still in your snack era. I'm surprised you, that's true. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Snacking away. He snacks a lot. He snacks a lot. You've seen the movie. Yes. He's snacking the entire time. So I feel like I can relate because I've also had a toddler at home. Uh-huh, but... So then, how many kids do you have? Okay. And so how old is the... The new one? Yeah. It's three months. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I know. Wild. But this was so exciting because I came out of maternity leave for Pedro. So just so you know, I'm doing it for the Pedro. No pressure at all. No pressure at all. But Mandalorian. For me, not for Star Wars, of course. I know, of course. Yeah. No, it's great. This is so awesome. But you're stepping back into Mando and Grogu's world. What was something that felt bigger or different about it this time? You know, honestly, all of it felt bigger and different. Of course, thank God, it was all the same people, but a larger scale. And it came as no surprise, because I experienced these movies originally on the big screen. As much as I loved that we were going to be providing a Star Wars experience at home when Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni invited me to be a part of The Mandalorian as a streaming series, Thank I immediately, you know, my heart just, you know, went to my memories of experiencing it on the big screen. You have a packed audience. Right. So it all, you know, is tailored for that experience and those memories that we have of the big screen Star Wars experience. you. I, like, wept a few times. My heart felt so tugged in certain moments. I haven't seen it with an audience yet. Oh. So I'm so excited for tonight. Because I've seen, look, I'm used to making Star Wars, and then you see people, you talk to people like I'm talking to you. Yeah. I see a reaction on YouTube. Yeah. We would do premieres, and it was so exciting. But Star Wars, to me, growing up, as much of it was great, what was on the screen, I think I was affected as a kid because of the energy in the room. Yeah. And I'm so looking forward to seeing if we gave people a fun time here. You feel it. You feel it in the theater. I can attest to that. That's so great to hear. Now, this time, you're sharing the galaxy with... The legendary Sigourney Weaver. Yeah. What was it like to have her energy on set and to, you know, she's stepping into this world and she's a sci-fi queen. Jon Favreau is brilliant and he's always brilliant in his casting. That's interesting. Yourself included. You can say that because we love you as Amanda. Well, every, every, every, every... Every, um... Every piece of casting that is a part of his creation is so thought out and so perfectly done. And for me, Sigourney Weaver is an icon, a cross-genre icon, an icon of comedy, an icon of science fiction, of action, and a masterful, masterful actor and an incredibly, incredibly kind person. One of my biggest movie stars. Um, and. And so that was at the top of my bucket list. The Mandalorian, we were just kind of talking about it. It was kind of this like, this. breath of fresh air back into the world of Star Wars, but it was something that people of all walks of life were finding in, you know, people who aren't even Star Wars fans were diving into it. So to take it from the small screen as this huge streaming phenomenon to going into the big screen, what was the biggest challenge or biggest opportunity? Well, the opportunity is like you get a tap on the shoulder and you're getting a pitch in the, in the World Series, You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Because I was very happy. Doing the show, working with other filmmakers. Being a showrunner, I got to write a lot. We got to explore a lot of things. We got to launch other characters. Charisma. So that was, I was very, and streaming really afforded a level of quality that TV traditionally hadn't before. But to get the tap on the shoulder and say, you can make a Star Wars movie, and now I'm going back in my head to when I'm 10 years old, watching with my dad. I'm an usher in a movie theater. When I'm in high school for Jedi. So it's like, okay. But now it's also similar to when I first started doing the show, which is like, I can't assume anybody's seen anything. This is a new medium. You're right. So they were making the big movies, the big Skywalker movies. We made this small thing, and I took a page out of George's book, which George Lucas's book, which is like. He liked to tell ground-level stories, right? R2-D2-C-3PO, in the tradition of the Kurosawa film, Hidden Fortress. Show it through the eyes of normal people, and then no matter how big the galaxy is, it'll still feel relatable. And so that's what we did with Season 1, Episode 1. Now that we're in the movie theaters, we've got to assume nobody's seen it, because it's been seven years. There are 12-year-olds now who weren't old enough to watch Star Wars when it was in the theaters before. We want to win that generation over too. And I think what I like about what I heard about the TV series was there's a lot of intergenerational viewing that parents who love Star Wars would watch it. Younger people will watch it as Baby Yoda's on it, and all of a sudden it becomes their thing. And that really made me feel good. And I hope that, because it's not just Star Wars, by the way. Movies, after the pandemic, were kind of not doing as well as before. And there's a question if things have changed. And I have to say what's nice about this year is there's a lot of good movies out there and a lot of people coming back to the theater. So this is also an opportunity to make a whole generation fall in love with movie theaters and going to the movies. But I think you've got to give them an experience that you can only get there. Because you've got great people who have beautiful TVs at their house, and you've got to make it. And you might have all your friends over and you can cheer together. You want to have something that. You could only get, and that's what you see with live music, you see it with festivals, you see it with Comic-Con. Yeah. People want to get together and celebrate together, but you've got to give them a show, and that's what we really wanted to do here. Watching you come back together with Grogu, their relationship has really won the hearts over so many people worldwide. Grogu is Baby Yoda forever. Yeah. How does their relationship evolve this movie? Well, you're a parent and, you know, you're up for some lifelong adventures yourself and an entire evolution of relationship that will evolve on its, you know, hopefully on your terms for some of it and then on its own terms and then their terms. And I think it's similar, you know, it's a parent-child relationship that protector and protected and how that dynamic can shift and where the dependencies lie and where. And who can help who and who can save who. I know that Mando wants to do everything that he can to protect this child that is his adopted son and teach him as much as he can because he knows that he's going to be outlived by him. And his biggest existential issue is probably who will take care of you when I'm gone. And so that, I think, that's where we are in this movie. Very much a partnership on missions together. I may or may not have shed a few tears in the movie because it's just, it really does come across that way. I hope, I hope. No, absolutely. Congratulations. Thank you.