Pedro Pascal has portrayed the main character in The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, and Marvel's Fantastic Four. He currently has two major franchise films set to release soon, and he's in conversation for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Joel Miller in The Last of Us.
Pascal's busyness is well documented, and he's not ready to slow down anytime soon, but his high-profile roles in big franchises do come with a cost. There's added pressure with franchises because they often come with huge fan bases. CinemaBlend interviewed him on the set of his next film, Fantastic Four, where Pascal gave an insight into whether things have gotten any easier for him over the years.
According to Pascal, with each franchise, it only gets "scarier," as "Each time you step into one, and you feel like this can't be scarier, you find out, ‘Oh, this is scarier.’ And then you find out, ‘No, this is scarier!’ I guess it kind of feels like that, actually." Pascal was on Season 4 of Game of Thrones as Oberyn Martell, and fans adored his performance. He says it was a big boost to his career, and shortly after it, he bagged the role of Din Djarin on The Mandalorian.
This was Pedro's first big franchise role, and it opened the door to others like Joel Miller on The Last of Us and Reed Richards on Fantastic Four. Pascal was also a part of Gladiator 2, the sequel to Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning blockbuster. Throughout it all, he says there's one thing that kept him from breaking under the pressure of fan expectations: The Story. Pedro says that he likes to center himself by staying close to everyone behind the scenes. It's something we can see when he's around Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.
Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin in THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU pic.twitter.com/v4MZtqtX1U
— Star Wars Holocron (@sw_holocron) April 18, 2025
Pedro feels the need "to anchor yourself so completely to a partnership, to your colleagues." He adds that, "It holds you, and really, really can be the perfect antidote to the fear, to the pressure and stuff like that." His focus on the story and the storytellers is evidenced by his incredibly heartfelt performance as Din Djarin. Pascal was selected for the part in 2018, and he's seen the story of the masked character grow from a space western to something worthy of the big screen.
Even after rumors swirled after every season of The Mandalorian that Pascal would leave the series due to his other roles, he has remained committed to Star Wars and is a bigger fan of Grogu than anyone. Pedro was at Star Wars Celebration 2025 in April, where an exclusive image of him in the Mandalorian armor, without his helmet, was shown to audiences.
He remained tight-lipped regarding the plot and teased, "I know everything that there is to know, and I’m not gonna tell you any of it because I want you to experience it. I want everyone to experience the incredible surprises that are in store in one of the greatest adventure movies that has ever been made. I mean that.” Considering Pascal's impressive resume, we'll take his word for it.
The Mandalorian and Grogu premieres in theaters on May 22, 2026.