Pedro Pascal's rapid rise will either make or break him

From Game of Thrones’ to The Last of Us’ and Fantastic Four’, Pacscal has become Hollywood’s most sought-after actor. Louis Chilton charts his journey from obscurity

- Louis Chilton

Is Pedro Pascal the biggest movie star on the planet right now? Consider the projects the 50-year-old Chilean-American actor has either recently completed or has in the pipeline, and this isn't such a far-fetched claim. In a couple of months, he'll be fronting Marvel's flagship Fantastic Four reboot, playing the rubber-limbed Reed Richards, before reprising the role in next year’s Avengers: Doomsday, a film that’s shaping up to be one of the most lucrative ever made. He is also the title star – if not technically the face – of the first Star Wars film in seven years, the forthcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu, a follow-up to the three-season Disney+ series he also spearheaded. Over on HBO, he is one of two leads of The Last of Us, the buzzy, Emmywinning apocalypse drama returning this week for season two, and just arrived on home release is Gladiator II, in which he enjoys a chunky role as an uxorious Roman general.

Take a breath, because we’re not done yet. Pascal has two films coming out over the next month: action comedy Freaky Tales (in cinemas from Friday) and comedy of errors The Uninvited (9 May). There’s a plum part in Celine Song’s forthcoming Materialists – the filmmaker’s first since her Oscar-nominated debut Past Lives – as one vertex of a love triangle (Chris Evans and Dakota Johnson being the others). And then there’s Eddington, a neo-western from Midsommar and Hereditary director Ari Aster, placing Pascal next to Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone and Austin Butler. Pascal has rapidly become one of the industry’s most in-demand actors, a ubiquitous and widely liked screen presence. But there’s nonetheless something peculiar about his rise, which seems to have transpired with a force and speed that almost defy explanation. Stardom like this manifesting after half a century on earth is rare, if not quite unheard of.