Pedro Pascal shares first impressions of 'The Mandalorian,' Baby Yoda

Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Pedro Pascal says he predicted The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda would be a big hit with fans.

The 45-year-old actor discussed the Disney+ series in an interview with Variety published Wednesday.

The Mandalorian is a live-action series set in the Star Wars universe. Pascal plays the title character, Din Djarin, a role which requires him to wear armor and a helmet for virtually all of his time onscreen.

In the interview, Pascal recalled how series creator Jon Favreau showed him storyboards covering the arc of the first season during their initial meeting. Pascal said he immediately thought the show would be a success.

"I hope this doesn't sound like me fashioning myself like I'm, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big [expletive]," the actor said.

Pascal said seeing The Child, a character fans have dubbed "Baby Yoda," in the storyboards reinforced his initial reaction to the show.

"Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode," he recalled. "That was when I was like, 'Oh, yep, that's a winner!"

Once on set, Pascal said it was sometimes challenging to hand over Mando's character to stunt performers.

"If there were more than just a couple pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that," the actor said. "But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them."

"When you're dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they're going to carve it out. It's just so specific. It's Star Wars," he added.

Pascal will reprise Mando in Season 2, which premieres Oct. 30 on Disney+. The streaming service released new posters for the season Monday featuring Mando and Baby Yoda.

In addition to Mando, Pascal known for playing Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones and Javier Peña on Narcos. He will portray Maxwell Lord in the upcoming film Wonder Woman 1984, which opens in theaters Dec. 25.

Pascal told Variety that playing Maxwell was a "special" role and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Gal Gadot, who portrays the title character, Diana Prince, discussed Wonder Woman 1984 in the November issue of Vanity Fair, saying the film speaks to the "danger in greed."