By Bel Hernandez
One more Latino zooms into outer space, this time in Disney + The Mandalorian. Pedro Pascal stars in the titular role of a helmeted dark visored bounty hunter, a “gunslinger in space” if you will when the much-awaited TV series premiered on November 12, 2019. The Mandalorian is the first live-action TV show in the history of the Star Wars franchise, a close second in popularity to the upcoming Christmas film release of StarWars: The Rise of Skywalker in popularity.
The TV series picks right after the original Star Wars Trilogy and revolves around the lone gunfighter in Mandalorian armor in the outer reaches of the galaxy, far from the authority of the new republic.
Pascal is a familiar face to film audiences as the warrior prince Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones and prior to that as the DEA agent Javier Pena on Netflix Narcos.
Chilean born Pascal grew up in Dallas, Texas and in Costa Mesa, California where he attended the Orange county school of the arts. Upon graduation, he left for the East Coast where he attended The Tisch School of the Arts in New York City. The young struggling actor worked odd jobs and picked up some small acting parts in theater and on television. His feature film credits include Kingsman and The Golden Circle.
His good friend actor Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker) encouraged him to take on the role in The Mandalorian. They had recently worked together in the Netflix movie Triple Frontier. Coming up next, Pascal will be seen on the big screen as billionaire supervillain Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984, a sequel to the Wonder Woman hit film which starred Gail Gadot, and who will reprise her role of Wonder Woman as well as produce.
Gina Carano (Deadpool) plays a former imperial shock trooper Cara Dune. Carano is a former Muay Thai (mixed martial arts) star who has transition into acting in such films as Fast and Furious 6, Heist and Haywire. Legendary actor Carl Weathers, best known as Apollo Creed of the Oscar-winning Rocky film fame plays a rival bounty hunter.
The outlook looks quite good for the series, with a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and the reviews have been very favorable.
The Mandalorian is executive produced by Jon Favreau and is now streaming on the new Disney + service.