Pedro Pascal makes protectiveness feel difficult and sometimes troubling. We rate him most highly opposite someone who can resist it; his patience and dry humour are less well served by films that only need a dependable presence.
Fi1m perspective
In The Last of Us (2023), Pascal's Joel looks after Ellie without ever making us entirely comfortable about it. Bella Ramsey gives Ellie demands of her own, and he has to respond to someone who will not simply accept being protected. We were moved by their quieter scenes because the two actors make the effort of getting close so apparent. There is tenderness here, but neither performance lets us relax for long.
The breakthrough came as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones (2014), after years of small parts; a lead in Narcos followed in 2015. With The Mandalorian (2019), the protective figure became central to his work. Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026) gives us that familiar patience in a pleasant, forgettable film. Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder supply the physical performance beneath the armour, while Pascal's tired, dry voice carries the relationship with Grogu. His contribution matters, but it cannot make the whole thing worth recommending.
Chris Sanders's The Wild Robot (2024) gives his dry humour a better home in Fink, a fox initially interested in an egg as breakfast. The warmth works, though the film's last third gives too much time to action. In Matt Shakman's The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025), his Reed Richards worries through fretful hands and sentences he cannot finish. Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm runs the household, and Pascal sensibly lets the clever man defer to her.
Celine Song finds a different use for his ease in Materialists (2025). His Harry seems accustomed to getting whatever he wants, which makes his dinner with Dakota Johnson's matchmaker Lucy so revealing. She assesses his value as a romantic prospect aloud; he receives the calculation as praise. Pascal makes the entitlement amiable without making it disappear, although the film remains too cold for its eventual appeal to our feelings.
The weaker films can leave him with little beyond competence. Ridley Scott's Gladiator II (2024) gives him a general who has lost faith in Rome, and he is solid but underused. More screen time would not by itself solve that. Start with The Last of Us, where another actor has the space to answer him back.
Biography
Pedro Pascal is a Chilean and American actor. Born José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal on 2 April 1975 in Santiago, Chile, he trained at the Orange County School of the Arts and New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
After early work in stage and television, Pascal gained recognition for his performance as Oberyn Martell in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2014). He later starred as Javier Peña in the Netflix series Narcos (2015–2017) and as Din Djarin in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019–2023).
His film roles include appearances in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Gladiator II (2024), The Wild Robot (2024), Drive-Away Dolls (2024), Eddington (2025), Materialists (2025) and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). He also appears as Joel Miller in the HBO series The Last of Us (2023–).
