SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains minor spoilers for The Mandalorian. Proceed at your own risk.
He’s the star of the hottest new series in the galaxy, a super-cool gunslinger from the further reaches of the galaxy, and the new face of the Star Wars universe. Women want him, men want to be him and rogue Mythrols are best off avoiding him entirely. But how much do we really know about The Mandalorian? Sure, he’s a universe-hopping bounty hunter who is feared from Tatooine to the Outer Rim, but let’s get to know the chap underneath the helmet.
With the first episodes of The Mandalorian now available to watch on Disney+ in the UK, the entire Star Wars community can finally get to know Din Djarin a little better. Because he’s basically The Man With No Name But In Space, ‘Mando’ gives away precious little about his personal life. However, we’ve tried to piece together what a typical day in the life of The Mandalorian might look like, based on his epic adventures to date. Let’s meet the man behind The Mandalorian.
MORNING HAS BROKEN
Life is uncomplicated for the Mandalorian race — it’s an existence that is strengthened by routine and order. Mandalorian warriors are some of the biggest badasses in the universe, and they don’t gain that kind of reputation by sleeping in late. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that The Mandalorian sleeps with one eye open, and wakes before his enemies.
It’s hardly a spoiler to reveal that, throughout the course of his debut adventure, Mando comes to care for a small green creature known as ‘The Child‘, affectionately known to the rest of us as ‘Baby Yoda’. So, if he wasn’t already up at the crack of dawn, something tells us that being a surrogate father to The Child is going to destroy any lie-ins Mando may have been planning in the near future.
SUSTENANCE
You may have noted that, for all we have seen of Mandalorians throughout the Star Wars saga, very rarely do you see one trying to smush a chocolate bar through the gap in their helmet. Yes, Mandalorians get hungry and need to eat like the rest of us, but they can’t grab a bite to eat on the move. Because Mandalorians do not reveal their identity to strangers, the helmet stays on when they’re out and about, but mealtimes are private, and so the helmet comes off, placed beside the plate while they chow down in isolation.
What’s in Mando’s fridge, you ask? Well, we know he’s partial to bone broth — a nice, simple soup boiled from the bones of a grinjer, whatever that is — but he’ll also eat fruits, vegetables and other straightforward meals that can be quickly digested. No Mandalorian worth his salt wants to be spending more time than is absolutely necessary sat grimacing on the vacc tube.
TRAINING
It takes hard work to become an in-demand bounty hunter — and it can’t all be learned on the job. The Mandalorian is an expert at hand-to-hand combat, has stamina levels gained by decades of bar-room brawling and has weapons expertise out the wazoo. That all comes from a rigorous training regime that Mando has dedicated himself to since he was a boy.
“I’m a Mandalorian,” he says. “Weapons are part of my religion.”
So, an average day might consist of a small distance run — helmet on, natch, in case he meets any fellow joggers — some circuit training, target practice and flamethrower 101. He’ll also take the time to learn new skills where necessary, such as riding a blurrg. It sounds tough, and it is, but if you lose one fight in The Mandalorian’s business, it’ll be your last fight. If all this training sounds like it’s eating into his day, don’t worry: where possible, Mando will combine all physical activity into an upbeat montage set to music.
MAINTENANCE AND HOUSEKEEPING
Mando is a man of means; means which have bought him his very own ship, the Razor Crest. Such a vehicle requires an intimate knowledge of hyperdrive generators, intergalactic travel and full weapons systems, and because Mando’s transport is essential for him to make his living, it requires a fair deal of upkeep, especially when there are pesky thieving Jawas roaming around the estate.
So, Mando will spend upwards of an hour a day tinkering under the hood to make sure the Razor Crest is a ship fit for a bounty hunter. Not only does it need to stand up to ground assaults, looters, monster attacks and heavy-duty laser fire, it also doubles as The Mandalorian’s living quarters, so we imagine there’s a fair bit of housekeeping and interior decorating being done on the sly, too. A Mandalorian’s home is his kingdom, after all.
CHILDCARE
For a full-time bounty hunter who’s constantly on the go, Mando struggles with something that so many in his industry don’t have to contend with: childcare. Ever since he took Baby Yoda under his wing, Mando has to dedicate a fair portion of his day to looking after his small, wrinkly surrogate son, and that’s not easy when the scum of the universe is looking to have your head on a platter.
With no creche or full-time babysitter options available to him, Mando tries to have it all by taking his little one out on the road with him. There’s little information on what kind of childcare The Child requires — he wears only a small robe and there’s seemingly no nappies to deal with — but keeping an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t destroy the ship can feel like it takes up the entire day. And then there’s discipline — as most parents know, little ones don’t always listen, so good luck trying to break that eating-live-frogs-whole habit. Welcome to parenthood, Mando!
TIME TO GO TO WORK
Bounty hunting, as I’m sure we’re all fond of saying in a clinical German accent, is a complicated profession. You work long hours in a high-risk job in a less-than-savoury industry, and you don’t typically stay friends with the people you have to capture. But, work is work, and when The Mandalorian goes to work, he goes to work. A man’s got to put dinner on the table somehow.
What hours does he work? It depends on the job. Sometimes Mando might spend entire days tracking his prey across arid deserts and icy plains. So much of the job is spent staring at a small, flashing keychain, the only indicator that his target is near. And if Mando’s job takes him to another quadrant of the universe, which it frequently does, you’re looking at an entire week of travelling, tracking, watching and waiting. It sounds grim, but at least he gets to stretch his legs, see the universe and kill interesting people.
PAYING IT FORWARD
Typically, when Mando brings home the spoils from a job, he’ll be paid by his handler, Greef Karga, in Imperial credits. After the fall of the Empire, however, Mando prefers to be paid in Beskar steel, which he puts to good use. After every job, The Mandalorian will pay a visit to an armory on his home planet of Nevarro, where he’ll share his spoils with his ancient clan, giving a bit back to young foundlings who are in a similar position to the one he was once in himself. That’s right: Mando is big into his charity work.
It’s not all give, give, give: The Mandalorian frequently uses his bounty of Beskar to forge a mighty suit of armour, piece by piece, so he’ll spend a lot of his day polishing his helmet (don’t laugh). He’s a bounty hunter first and a pillar of his community second.
INEVITABLE CRAZY EPISODIC ADVENTURE
If there’s one thing we know is a regular occurrence in Mando’s daily life, it’s that at some point between breakfast and bedtime he’s highly likely to get himself involved in a high-octane, life or death situation, or a fight to the death with an enemy. It’s the life he chose when he slipped on that helmet. He could have been a Blue-Milkman or a Death Stick peddler or a cleaner of Bantha poop, but no. He had to be a hired gun.
Even outside of his mandated working hours, Mando frequently finds himself in over his head with his many enemies, getting into crazy scrape after crazy scrape, warring with former accomplices turned nemeses, killer droids, fellow bounty hunters and insane megalomaniacal warlords. Mando seems to portion out these high-impact adventures in episodic fashion, visiting a new planet each week, A-Team style. If being a stay-at-home dad was an option, maybe he’d consider it, but this is the way.
ABSTINENCE
As a working man and single father, The Mandalorian has no time for romance, which is just as well because his helmet probably isn’t doing him any favours on whatever the Star Wars equivalent of Tinder is. Mando practices abstinence, voluntarily, or so he tells himself.
That’s not to say that Din Djarin is not a hit with women, because he catches the eye of every senorita in every backwater planet he frequents — between his shiny breastplate, his gruff demeanour and the sense he gives off that the right woman could tame him, he’s practically fighting off the women. Uninterested in the dating scene, Mando instead prefers to put aside a little time each day for flirtatious longing, yearning for human contact and building relationships with capable female counterparts that are based on respect.
LEISURE TIME
How does The Mandalorian cut loose and relax? Being a bounty hunter is a lonely existence, to be honest. Outside of his clan, true friends are few and far between, and the less said about his family the better. Generally, when Mando is in a cantina, he’s there looking for work and doesn’t have time to kick back with a flagon of foaming spotchka, no matter how badly he might want to.
Occasionally, Mando will meet with his agent Greef Karga at a Nevarro cantina, where they will enjoy up to two lines of monotone small talk before getting down to the matter at hand. Calling such get-togethers a business lunch is probably a stretch, but it sure beats the solitude of endless space with just that little green goblin for company.
Catch The Mandalorian now on Disney+.
*DISCLOSURE: Some of the links above are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, Fandom will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
