Pedro Pascal Weighs In On The Viral Starbucks Baby Yoda Drink

The internet is currently crushing on Pedro Pascal, and for obvious reasons. Aside from starring in two of the biggest shows on TV right now — The Mandalorian and The Last of Us — TikTok’s also recently discovered that Pascal’s charm and humor off camera make him extremely meme-able. He may not understand the “daddy” of it all, but Pascal is game to talk about the internet’s obsession with his go-to Starbucks order and his newest role in Merge Mansion. In the latter, he plays a detective in a series of ads for the mobile game, which he says taps into a “fantasy fulfillment” for him.

If you’re currently on #PascalTok, you may have seen a few of these minute-long commercials for Merge Mansion on your FYP. “I love the world of mystery,” says Pascal of why he chose to be a part of the latest campaign. The ads are set within the world of Merge Mansion’s main mystery: What is Grandma Ursula hiding? The mockumentary-style shorts promote the game’s recent update, which unlocks new levels within the Boulton family mansion.

With Pascal playing the pivotal role of Detective Tim Rockford to solve the case, the video game company Metacore created an escape room in Los Angeles that looked like the Boulton family home IRL to promote the game’s update. After getting a chance to go through the experience, Pascal chatted with Elite Daily in an exclusive interview about his new project as well as The Mandalorian-inspired Baby Yoda drink that’s taking the internet by storm.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Elite Daily: You play Detective Tim Rockford for Merge Mansion, and you currently star as Joel in HBO’s The Last of Us. What made you want to do another game-to-screen role?

Pedro Pascal: I wanted to take on this role after I saw the Merge Mansion mockumentary shorts. I had nostalgia for playing an investigator. This is a different kind of investigator than the one that I played in Narcos, but a similar sort of serious tone of noir. I like that world a lot. I feel like there's a little fantasy fulfillment in stepping into those shoes.

And as far as the game goes, I think it’s really clever. I love a good mystery. I enjoy learning more and more about what’s out there with this gaming medium and all of the different clever ways that creativity is being represented.

ED: How successful were you with the Merge Mansion escape room experience?

PP: I was pretty good at it. I’m not going to lie: There are some things that I’m better at than others for sure, and I did need some help. With problem-solving, my brain immediately gets a little unfocused, but as soon as I was able to tune in to the puzzles and clues in each room, then I really, really, really enjoyed myself. But there were Merge Mansion experts that had to guide me into that sweet spot of figuring things out. Once I did, you couldn’t get me out of there.

ED: If you had help, can you name three people that you would want with you in the Merge Mansion escape room, and why?

PP: I think it’s the most fun to have this sort of immersive experience with friends and family. It would be my siblings — there are four of us, so we’d be the perfect team to figure these things out. Although, I’m sure there would be arguments. We always have to get through some points of conflict to get to the finish line. Monopoly was more like a war party at our home sometimes, but this is different. We’d probably have a great time.

ED: Based on your apparent love for Starbucks, because the world has seen your six shots of espresso, I wanted to get your thoughts on what Detective Rockford’s order would be at Starbucks.

PP: I think he would just have a plain black coffee. He wouldn’t have time to think about it or have time to learn the terminology that it would take to get them to serve you the six shots of espresso. I think he’d just kind of incorrectly order a black coffee.

ED: Sounds about right. What do you think Joel’s Starbucks order would be, from The Last of Us?

PP: I think Joel would secretly really enjoy a sweet drink. I don’t know what that would be necessarily, because I’ve only been ordering the same thing from Starbucks for such a long time. I’m a kind of no-milk, no-sugar person as far as coffee is concerned.

But I think that I’m deciding right now that Joel likes a sweet drink. So, whatever that is. What would that be? What do you think Joel would order from Starbucks?

ED: I feel like maybe a caramel macchiato. That's pretty sweet.

PP: Yeah. I feel like he would be a caramel macchiato guy, but maybe be a little embarrassed to order it, but it’s what he actually wants.

ED: Yeah. He’d get Ellie to order it.

PP: No, Ellie would make fun of him even worse than somebody else.

ED: Then, he’ll slip a piece of paper to the barista or mobile order it, so then he doesn’t have to talk to anyone. He can just go pick it up.

PP: Yeah. Now we know what Joel dreams of.

ED: Yeah, a sugary Starbucks drink. Did you know that there’s a secret Baby Yoda drink at Starbucks, too? It’s a chai latte with a matcha cold foam on top, so it looks like Grogu. Would you ever try that?

PP: Yeah, I’ll try anything. Once.