On the Season 1 finale of The Mandalorian, our reluctant hero and newest Star Wars icon
took enough of a tumble to necessitate removing his helmet and giving us a look at his bloody,
battered visage.
Here's why Pedro Pascal, the actor under the helmet, looks so familiar.
Game of Thrones
You might have heard about that plucky little fantasy program Game of Thrones once or twice
in the past, but you may not immediately remember that Pedro Pascal got his own turn on the
program during its fourth season.
He held a recurring role as Prince Oberyn Martell also known as "The Viper" an utterly
unflappable duelist-slash-poisoner from the nation of Dorne.
"You shouldn't drink before a fight."
"You learn this during your years in the fighting pits?
I always drink before a fight."
Despite appearing on only seven episodes of Game of Thrones, Pascal's footprint is still
legible on the series even after its end, both for his character's snappy attitude and
his incredibly gruesome death at the hands of The Mountain during a trial by combat.
Playing Oberyn earned Pascal sex symbol status and before becoming the Mandalorian, it was
his most high-profile role.
He was recognized as a standout performer in what is often regarded as one of the best
overall seasons of Game of Thrones, and his career only began to soar from there.
Narcos
Following Game of Thrones, Pascal landed a starring role as DEA agent Javier Peña for
three seasons on the Netflix historical crime drama Narcos.
The series charts the history of the international investigation into and eventual capture of
infamous cartel lord Pablo Escobar.
Pascal consulted with the real-life agent Peña to properly depict the man's ideological
struggle with the War on Drugs' futility and the culture of extreme violence and corruption
perpetuated by both the illegal trade itself and the law enforcement effort made to curb
it.
Narcos might be a more niche selection for the general Netflix-original-consuming audience,
but the show earned Pascal a large amount of positive praise.
The series ended in 2017 after its third season, and was spun off into a Pascal-free follow-up
series about the development of the major Mexican drug cartels entitled Narcos: Mexico.
Deeper cuts
Like every other starving twenty-something actor living in New York City in the 1990s
and 2000s, Pedro Pascal landed a few one-episode roles on the various versions of the Law and
Order franchise, which you may recognize him from if you have an incredible memory.
Another of Pascal's many TV credits include a brief recurring role on Graceland, USA Network's
law enforcement drama about undercover federal agents living out of a confiscated house in
California.
He appeared only on the first season as an FBI agent and the subject of an internal investigation,
who comes into violent conflict with other characters on the show.
You may also remember Pascal from the sixth season of The Mentalist, in which he played
another FBI agent, Marcus Pike.
"Beard looks good."
"It's for an undercover thing."
Turning to lesser-known movies, Pascal appeared in the 2018 film Prospect – which, curiously
enough, considering his shiny new job as a Mandalorian, is a sci-fi western.
Pascal portrayed Ezra, a prospector for gems on an alien moon who allies with the teenaged
main character Cee during a test of survival in an environment that's both ecologically
and socially toxic.
The movie didn't receive wide release despite garnering positive chatter at festivals and
being very well-reviewed on Rotten Tomatoes, but you can catch it on Amazon Prime.
Prior to that role, Pascal appeared in the 2015 comedy horror film Bloodsucking Bastards.
Pascal stars as the evil sales manager Max — who is also secretly living as a vampire,
to the horrified discovery of his employees Evan and Tim.
This, too, is a movie that isn't exactly going to enter into the annals of cinematic history,
but "Office Space plus vampires" equals wholesome, B-movie horror schlock.
The last few years have seen Pascal land roles in higher-profile movies, including The Equalizer
2 and If Beale Street Could Talk.
Comic book movies past and future
Being a part of the Star Wars universe doesn't quite count as existing within the superhero
genre, but no worry like most relatively high-profile actors today, Pedro Pascal's got a couple
of cape films under his belt.
In 2017, Pascal played the American cowboy spy operative Agent Whiskey in Kingsman: The
Golden Circle, the sequel to the 2014 original that's based on the comic book series Kingsman.
Reviews for The Golden Circle were middling at best, but just like its first iteration
Kingsman: The Secret Service, the flick is chock-full of gratuitous slow-mo and cartoonish
violence but this time, Pedro Pascal is there, sporting a Stetson.
Pascal's next comic book movie role is yet to come: Pascal will be joining the DC cinematic
universe in June 2020 as one of the antagonists of Wonder Woman 1984, Maxwell Lord.
He's a peak-'80s greed-is-good kind of villain, and apparently has magic crystals that grant
wishes.
We still aren't sure what Maxwell Lord's end goal is as a supervillain, but we can't tell
you how excited we are to see Pascal chew some scenery.
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