Highlights
- Pedro Pascal fought back tears at the Mandalorian & Grogu CCXP Mexico panel on Sunday.
- The crowd erupted in chants of Pascal’s name after he became visibly emotional onstage.
- The Mandalorian and Grogu hits theaters May 22 — the first Star Wars film since 2019.
Pedro Pascal wasn’t expecting to cry. But Mexico City had other plans.
The Mandalorian and Grogu star showed up as an unannounced guest at the film’s CCXP Mexico panel on Sunday (April 26, 2026) alongside director Jon Favreau — and the moment got real, fast. Pascal became visibly emotional and paused to push back tears. This led to a big cheer from the crowd as attendees started cheering his name. After again addressing the audience in Spanish, the actor blew a kiss to the fans.
Yeah. It was that kind of night.
Pascal, sporting a Mexico men’s World Cup 2026 soccer jersey, explained that it was meaningful for him to have the project hit the big screen after years of living inside the character on Disney+. The show launched back in 2019, and getting Din Djarin onto a cinema screen has clearly been eating at him ever since.
“As soon as I saw this, I knew that it would be a new authorship of a streaming experience,” the actor said about the series that was last seen with 2023’s season three finale. “But I always had a dream in my heart that it would be on a big screen because that’s how I was developed as a child. I went to the movie theater so much with my family, and I saw the Star Wars movies on the big screen.”
That’s when the tears hit. And the crowd absolutely erupted.
The actor had to pause to fight back tears as the crowd began a thunderous chant of his name. It’s the kind of moment that feels made for the internet — and sure enough, video of it spread almost instantly, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter‘s Ryan Gajewski, who caught the whole thing on camera.
Pedro Pascal pauses to brush away tears at CCXP Mexico after he mentions watching movies with his family. pic.twitter.com/ounIUY2by9
— Ryan Gajewski (@_RyanGajewski) April 27, 2026Pascal played the role of Din Djarin, the titular character in The Mandalorian. He reprised his role in the film, Mandalorian and Grogu, based on the series. The actor explained it was important for him to do justice to the character yet again in the film version.
The CCXP panel wasn’t just an emotional gut-punch — it was also a proper hype machine for what’s shaping up to be a massive summer release. The Mandalorian and Grogu centers on Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and young apprentice Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, as they help defend the New Republic.
Favreau used his time onstage to make the case for why longtime fans and total newcomers both have a reason to buy a ticket. “We wanted to introduce these characters to a new audience,” Favreau said. “But for the fans who have been there forever, like [this crowd], we wanted to evolve the relationship. It’s not no longer about the Mandalorian rescuing Grogu. Now Grogu has leveled up. He’s a Mandalorian apprentice. He’s studying under Luke Skywalker. He’s coming into his own, and now he’s discovering and unleashing his abilities.”
That’s a significant evolution for a character who spent most of his Disney+ run being carried around in a floating pram.
The Mandalorian and Grogu also stars Sigourney Weaver and Jeremy Allen White, and will be the first major theatrical release from the Star Wars franchise since 2019. That’s a long drought for one of Hollywood’s biggest IP machines, and Disney is clearly betting big on Pascal and Grogu to bring Star Wars back to its theatrical roots.
Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Ian Bryce, and Dave Filoni serve as producers on the feature that has a script from Favreau, Filoni, and Noah Kloor.
As for Pascal — the man who once wore beskar armor is apparently not immune to the full weight of a crowd chanting his name in his native language. And honestly? Nobody’s complaining about it.
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu opens in theaters May 22.
MORE POP CULTURE HEADLINES
