The Mandalorian never takes off his helmet. That’s the rule, according to his planet’s customs. If he showed anyone his face, he would be unworthy to wear his Mandalorian helmet ever again. This is the way.

Through the first 15 chapters of The Mandalorian — roughly seven and a half hours of television programming — we’ve seen Mando without his mask just two times. Once, it was a matter of life and death. In “Chapter 8 - Redemption,” he required treatment for a head wound that could not be applied while he was wearing a helmet. (The only one around at the time was a droid, so technically no living thing saw Mando’s face, giving him a technical loophole for breaking the rules.) The second time came in “Chapter 15 - The Believer,” when he had to remove his disguise as a Stormtrooper in order to access an Imperial computer. Caught in the act, Mando must share some drinks and even a conversation with an Imperial officer, all with his face exposed to the entire world.

To say this is an unexpected development is beyond an understatement. And yet when he pulls off his mask he has ... a neatly trimmed mustache?

You can see it for yourself above, in the screengrab of Pedro Pascal’s handsome mug. Mando had the mustache when we peered beneath his mask last season as well:

Probably this is a dumb question — okay, for sure, it’s a very dumb question — but I really want to know: Why would the Mandalorian, someone who never lets anyone see his face ever for any reason, go to the trouble of growing and maintaining a mustache? What is the point? Who is he trying to impress?

While we never see the Mandalorian without his mask, I guess there are moments when things are quiet on the Razor Crest (before the Razor Crest got blown to smithereens anyway), and Grogu isn’t running around trying to steal alien eggs. In his brief moments of calm, maybe Mando likes to sit in front of the mirror and admire his flavor saver. There probably isn’t a whole lot else to do while traveling the galaxy with a baby Yoda.

But c’mon: Think of what you would do if you wore a helmet every time you went out in public. Use your own behavior during the pandemic as your guide. I gave up on wearing non-sweatpants months ago. I regularly go days without shaving. There’s no way in hell I’m taking time to groom a soup strainer when literally no one alive will ever see it.

The Mandalorian needs to address this somehow. There should be a flashback to Din Djarin’s time as a Child of the Watch, where his guardians carefully explained that while a Mandalorian must always wear a helmet, they should also maintain an A+ mouth mane in tribute to Mandalore the Great, who famously loved men with a lip strip. Or maybe reveal that Baby Yoda’s father had dental drapes, and Mando grew some of his own to help Grogu feel comfortable. Whatever the reason, there needs to be at least the majority of one episode of Season 3 devoted to it, preferably titled “Chapter 17 - The Cookie Duster.”

Better yet: Add a mustache to the actual Mandalorian helmet so we always know what Pedro Pascal looks like undernearth. Like this:


Hey, The Mandalorian is clearly inspired by classic Western movies. What better way to show that influence than with an old timey frontier lip curtain? It just makes sense.

Gallery — A Visual History of Movie Breakfast Cereals: