Actor Pedro Pascal originally thought he was playing Boba Fett in Disney’s The Mandalorian TV show. The Mandalorian was first announced by showrunner Jon Favreau back in 2018. This Star Wars series will tell the story of a lone gunfighter who emerges in between the fall of the Empire and the rise of the First Order and will premiere on Disney+ when the streaming service launches in November.

Boba Fett was first introduced in animated form in The Star Wars Holiday Special back in 1978, before making his first live-action appearance in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980. Ever since, Fett has been a fan-favorite character, despite him having very little screen time and even less dialogue in the original trilogy. Disney seemed to be preparing for a Boba Fett spin-off film and even had James Mangold set to direct, but plans seemed to fall through when Solo: A Star Wars Story underperformed at the box office, resulting in future Star Wars spin-offs being put on hold. Then when The Mandalorian was announced, some people were confused as to who the main character was going to be.

With rumors about a Boba Fett movie going around for years, fans thought Pascal was going to play Fett and the actor recently revealed to ComicBook that he thought the same thing. Pascal explained that when he first met with Favreau about acting in the series, he didn’t care what role he had, but was just excited to be a part of the Star Wars universe. Upon seeing the concept art in his office, Pascal thought we was going to get to play the iconic character, but that turned out to not be the case. Pascal’s full comment can be read below:

In the year since the series was announced, fans have gotten plenty of updates on The Mandalorian. Pascal will act alongside the likes of Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, and Giancarlo Esposito, who were all confirmed to have roles in The Mandalorian at the end of last year. Disney unveiled a poster and trailer for The Mandalorian at D23, which gave fans a look at what’s in store for November. There have also been rumors that the character Mara Jade might appear in The Mandalorian, along with characters from Star Wars Rebels such as Grand Admiral Thrawn.

“I wanted to meet Jon Favreau. I didn’t care what he wanted me to do. So we met in Jon’s office, which was covered with story illustrations from this show - and I noticed the Mandalorian, a Boba Fett-looking character, immediately. I thought to myself, ‘Oh, it’s amazing that they are finally gonna get into this character.’ Jon talked about the story, visuals, and tone. I thought it was amazing and finally asked, ‘Well, who am I?’ I’m pointing to different characters, creatures, and aliens in the concept art, and John just looked at me and said ‘You’re the Mandalorian.’ I was like, ‘WHAT? I get to play Boba Fett?’ He said, ‘No, he’s not Boba Fett. He’s the Mandalorian.’ I couldn’t have imagined a better moment.”

Since Pascal’s character and Boba Fett both wear Mandalorian armor, it makes sense why fans and Pascal thought that Fett was going to be the star of the show. The Mandalorian was created in part because of the hype for a Boba Fett film but in a way, not having the series revolve around the character could be better. Since Pascal isn’t playing Boba Fett, he is free to create a new character without having to conform to what people would have wanted to see with a Boba Fett series. Either way, fans won’t have to wait that much longer to see what Pascal brings to the table when The Mandalorian premieres on November 12th. 

More: The Mandalorian Is Finally Paying Off Darth Vader’s TESB Bounty Hunters

Source: ComicBook

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