Pedro Pascal Injured His Face Right Before The Mandalorian Season 1 Unmasking Scene

The season 3 finale of "The Mandalorian" aired on Wednesday, and while social media is abuzz with the latest happenings in the world of Mando, let's take a look back at one of the pivotal moments in the first season of this show: when Din removes his helmet in the season 1. 

While there is still a part of me that laments that this group keeps their faces — and more importantly, Pedro Pascal's face — covered, it cannot be denied how powerful it was when he finally showed it in the last episode of season 1. If you recall, the main gang hides out in the cantina after Din is wounded. Cara Dune (Gina Carano) tries to get him to remove his helmet for treatment, but The Creed says he can't do that in front of a living being. Grogu uses the Force to buy them time, and IG-11 (Taika Waititi) stays behind with Din while the others head with Grogu to the sewers. IG-11 reminds Din that he is a droid, not a living being (which is a different argument altogether), and the Mandalorian removes his helmet for bacta spray treatment.

What you might not have known is that some of the injuries on Din's face when we finally got to see it were real. According to a 2020 episode of "Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian" on Disney+ (via Insider), Pascal injured himself on set and had to go to the hospital for treatment. 

Before you go running for bandaids for your favorite Mandalorian, IG-11 fixed him up just fine. As it turns out, Pedro Pascal's accident happened on the way to the set when he wasn't paying attention. In the discussion with co-stars Gina Carano and Carl Weathers as well as executive producers and creators Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, Pascal said, "I stepped out of the makeup trailer looking at my sides and walked into a piece of plywood. I have never gone to the hospital for work before."

What's even crazier is that he was already made up for the scene where his helmet was removed, so he looked pretty bad on top of the fact that he was cut up in real life. Favreau also joked that the medical folks at the hospital were like "let him in," because of the makeup. The bridge of Pascal's nose was injured and required seven stitches. 

Of course, in true Mandalorian fashion, Pascal went right back to work after getting his nose sewn back together, prompting Carano to say, "I thought it was so cool." Filoni added that he thought it was "method" to have Pascal film a scene where Din is all beat up for real. Oddly enough, for most shows, an actor getting a facial injury on set might be an issue, but for a series that has a rule that this character never shows his face, it wasn't that big of a deal. 

However, there's one head injury that Pedro Pascal was known for before his accident on the set of "The Mandalorian." Only this one is fictional. And fatal. Yes, we're talking about "Game of Thrones" and Oberyn Martell, the incredibly doomed prince who heads to King's Landing for vengeance, almost gets it, and then has his skull crushed in by the man who murdered his family. You know the scene. No one forgets that scene. 

And this scene, too, has a delightful Pascal anecdote to go alongside it: 

"I got my head crushed in, it was the best part of the day. It was so hot when we were shooting that scene. You know, [co-star Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson's] over me and he puts his thumbs into my eyes and they've got piping — tubing — through his body into his forearms to his thumbs and just pumping this, like, cool blood. And so gentle, like the gentlest guy ever."

Naturally, Pascal adds that he fell into a deep sleep while playing the cranium-crushed corpse in the episode's wide shots. 

Can Pascal be placed in charge of telling all stories involving head injuries, both real and fictional? Anyway, now every nerd worth their salt can point out that Oberyn would've survived his final battle if he had been wearing a helmet. Maybe a helmet made of Mandalorian Beskar. Oh, no. Please put your pens down, fan-fiction writers! (Or pick them up. You do you!)

Now, we eagerly await Pascal's inevitable story about head violence on the set of "The Last of Us." It must exist.