Credit: LucasfilmTV and film star Pedro Pascal recently confirmed he is no longer playing every aspect of Din Djarin, the titular Mandalorian, in the hit Star Wars series. Now, following the end of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, new information has surfaced about Pascal’s next role, something altogether different to his character in the galaxy far, far away.
As the entertainment industry swiftly gets back to work following the double strike that took place this summer, reports, leaks, and rumors are surfacing online regarding many of the upcoming projects coming to both the big and small screen in the near future.
One of which is a leak regarding Pedro Pascal’s leading character in Ridley Scott’s upcoming and long-anticipated, Gladiator 2 (2024). Following the events of Scott’s Oscar-winning Gladiator (2000) starring Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius, Gladiator 2 follows Paul Mescal’s Lucius Verus now that he is a grown man; Spencer Treat Clark played the young Lucius in the original film.
Gladiator 2 boasts a stellar cast, and a new leak from industry insider Daniel Richtman (via Looper) has revealed key details about Pascal’s role. While there is no confirmed name for Pascal’s character just yet, the scooper has shared that he will be called Marcus Acagius and will be “[a] seasoned veteran and hero of the Roman Empire.”
There’s not much to go on, and, alas, it is not confirmed by Ridley Scott, Pascal, or any of the producing studios, but this crumb of information may indicate that Marcus Acagius will either aid Mescal’s Lucius return from the wilderness or be his enemy. Fans won’t get a clearer idea until the first teaser or trailer drops sometime before the movie’s slated November 22, 2024 release date. Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Derek Jacobi, and Joseph Quinn also star.
The news of Pascal’s Gladiator 2 character comes just months after the third season of his hit Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, came to an end. Pascal has played Din Djarin, bounty hunter and carer of Grogu (The Child/”Baby Yoda”) since 2019, appearing in all three seasons as well as in the spin-off series, The Book of Boba Fett.
Interestingly, though, Pascal does not play every aspect of Din Djarin and confirmed at the end of the third season that he was not the person in the iconic Beskar armor and only provided the voice for his character. The people in the helmet were long-time Mando actors Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder.
“There was an extended amount of experimentation, being in the suit for a lot of it, and frankly, my body wasn’t up for the task as far as, like, the four months of it,” Pascal said earlier this year at The Hollywood Reporter round table. “But I was in it. I was in it a significant amount, an elastic amount. But now we’ve figured it out, which is super cool, and amazingly, it gave me the opportunity to be able to go and do something else.”
That “something else” could be any one of Pascal’s many projects. The actor has dominated Hollywood in recent years, and just this week received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for his work as Joel Miller in HBO’s The Last of Us. He stars as the leading character in the videogame adaptation alongside Bella Ramsey as Ellie.
Pedro Pascal’s breakthrough role was as Oberyn Martell on HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones. He rose to further prominence after starring in Narcos on Netflix before stepping into the shoes of a bounty hunter in The Mandalorian. As the eponymous Mandalorian, Pascal became an integral part of the survival of the Star Wars franchise after fans became dismissive of the challenged sequel trilogy.
Coinciding with the launch of The Walt Disney Company’s streaming service, The Mandalorian began airing in November 2019 as Disney+’s flagship show. It was widely well-received, with many celebrating the show’s neo-Western, gritty direction. The Mandalorian was created by Jon Favreau, and both he and the newly-appointed Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm, Dave Filoni, have been credited with the recent success of the Star Wars franchise.
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That same success has spawned what we now know as the “Mando-Verse.” The “Mando-Verse” is a collection of shows that exist in the same timeline. The shows (The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars: Ahsoka, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew) are all situated in the New Republic era of the ever-expanding Star Wars timeline, approximately five years after the events of Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi (1983).
And to cap it off, the “Mando-Verse’ storylines will seemingly come to a head in Dave Filoni’s crossover movie coming sometime in the near future. Announced at the Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, Inside the Magic confirmed that a “Mando-Verse” film was in development from Lucasfilm.
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President Kathleen Kennedy revealed Filoni’s upcoming movie, which is expected to feature the galactic war between the New Republic and Grand Admiral Thrawn’s (Lars Mikkelsen) forces, alongside two other projects: James Mangold’s exploration of the Force in the Dawn of the Jedi era, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order era movie focusing on Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker.
Are you looking forward to seeing Pedro Pascal in Gladiator 2? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!