2025 is the year of Pedro Pascal. Here's why he's having a moment
'I chase nostalgia a lot, now that I'm getting older,' Pascal told the Chronicle. 'I'm a moviegoer more than I am anything else in life, to be honest.'
As he walked the red carpet, then attended the premiere of the Oakland-shot ' Freaky Tales ' at the Grand Lake Theatre, and gently held court at the after-party at Dragon Gate in Jack London Square, Pascal seemed to be treasuring the experience, as if taking a career victory lap.
But the end is hardly near. If Pascal is truly an alpha moviegoer, then he's been seeing a lot of Pedro Pascal movies lately. Over the past four months, beginning with April's release of ' Freaky Tales,' the Chilean-born actor has starred in four movies and one limited series.
In May, he was featured in the second season of HBO Max's epic post-apocalyptic series ' The Last of Us,' for which he earned his fourth Emmy nomination. In June he co-starred with Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans in ' Materialists,' Celine Song's sharp takedown of the New York dating scene. In July, he is co-headlining in Ari Aster's pandemic potboiler ' Eddington ' and the Marvel superhero reboot ' The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' which opened Friday, July 25, and has already pulled a 2025-best $24.4 million in Thursday previews.
It is so obvious: 2025 is the Year of Pascal. He's even on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair with the title, 'Everyone wants a piece of Pedro.' Indeed.
Dial it back to 2024, when he appeared in four movies, including ' Gladiator II,' and that's eight movies in a year and a half.
That's an amazing run for a longtime journeyman actor who began as a Spanish-speaking immigrant, although a privileged one: His aristocratic parents fled Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship and eventually settled in San Antonio, then Southern California.
But for more than a quarter of a century he had struggled, cobbling together a career with credits that include TV guest shots in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' 'Touched By an Angel' and 'NYPD Blue' to name just a few.
So why Pedro Pascal, and why now?
Strangely, his big breakthrough was a role that hid his face. The Disney+ 'Star Wars' spinoff ' The Mandalorian ' (2019-23) starred Pascal as Din Djarin, the helmeted bounty hunter charged with protecting the Yoda-like Baby Grogu. He's never been off the A-list since.
Pascal had been in high profile projects before — a recurring role in Season 4 of 'Game of Thrones' in 2014 and a co-lead in the Netflix series ' Narcos ' (2015-17). But 'The Mandalorian' made him flaming hot.
To capitalize, he accepted the role as the villain in the 2020 pandemic box office casualty 'Wonder Woman 1984,' opposite Gal Gadot. To prove his versatility, he shaved off his trademark mustache.
Big mistake.
'Strongly disagree with a clean shaven me,' Pascal groused to Variety recently. 'I was so appalled by the way I look in 'Wonder Woman 1984.''
Which brings up another part of the Pascal mystique. Has there been a Hollywood star as defined by his mustache since Burt Reynolds?
That might be one key to Pascal, who in the eyes of many of his growing number of fans is getting better looking with age. Every scraggly facial hair, every crinkly wrinkle around the eyes, every graying hair of his unruly mop adds depth. The guy increasingly feels lived-in, like an REI-outfitted dreamboat.
In 'Materialists,' Johnson, as a Manhattan matchmaker, calls his character 'perfect,' one who 'checks every box.' In 'The Last of Us,' he is confronted by a young woman seeking revenge for her father's death, a man he killed. Even as she is consumed by vengeance, the woman, played with wonderful bloodlust by Kaitlyn Dever, stops for a moment and observes, 'You actually are pretty handsome. Congrats on that.'
In 'Eddington,' Joaquin Phoenix's sheriff with an inferiority complex is intimidated by the charisma of Pascal's small-town New Mexico mayor. And obviously, Pascal's role as Mr. Fantastic, stud scientist and astronaut in 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' speaks for itself. Forget the Silver Surfer; he's the Silver Fox.
Yet sex appeal only partially explains Pascal's popularity. What has really made him a star is that we have come to instinctively trust him.
In 'The Mandalorian,' 'The Last of Us' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' he's a protector. Pascal, who has a transgender sister, is that way in real life, too. In April he slammed an anti-trangender Instagram post by 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling, calling it ' Heinous LOSER behavior,' just one example of his willingness to engage on social and political issues.
But even in 'Freaky Tales,' in which he's a contract killer looking to reform, he's a man holding on to hard-won truth and experience.
And that's ultimately what Pascal brings to the table. He doesn't have time for B.S. He's lived a life, and it shows, especially in those melancholy eyes that seem to say so much. That experience informs the sixth episode of the second season of 'The Last of Us,' which features some of his best acting and is one of the best hours of television this year.
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