Pedro Pascal's IMDB is making us tired just looking at it. Along with playing Joel Miller in the upcoming The Last Of Us Season 2, the in-demand actor and veritable Internet daddy has a head-spinning number of projects in the pipeline, from the Ethan Coen comedy Drive-Away Dolls to Ridley Scott's Gladiator sequel to Marvel's recently-announced Fantastic Four reboot, in which Pascal was cast as Reed Richards.
Given the sheer amount of that output, eventually something had to give, and it sadly looks like the thing to go will be Pascal's previously-announced horror collab with Barbarian director Zach Cregger. When word dropped in May 2023, there were little details about who the Chilean-American star would be playing in Weapons, but many were already intrigued by the premise, which is described as "an interrelated, multistory horror epic that tonally is in the vein” of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.
However, as with so many other productions in the past year, the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes caused a schedule delay for the Barbarian follow-up, which was meant to begin filming in fall 2023. That created a conflict between Weapons and Pascal's Fantastic Four commitment, resulting in the actor having to pull out of the former production.
But there is good news: per The Hollywood Reporter, Cregger and Co. have allegedly found a new leading man in Josh Brolin. The Dune: Part Two star is reportedly in negotiations to take over Pascal's part in the horror thriller, which will mark the acclaimed actor's first foray into the horror genre.
If all goes as planned, Brolin will join a cast that includes The Worst Person in the World's Renate Reinsve, Causeway's Brian Tyree Henry, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga actor Tom Burke and The Walking Dead alum Austin Abrams. Filming on Weapons allegedly kicked off on Tuesday, February 20, and will run through mid-April 2024.
Weapons marks writer-director Zach Cregger's first project since Barbarian, his 2022 horror breakout hit starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long. Made off of a budget of $4.5 million, the freaky film grossed over $45 million worldwide and earned critical acclaimed for its dark humor and genuine scares. Cregger will reunite with his Barbarian production team for his next film, including Roy Lee of Vertigo, and J.D. Lifshitz and Raphael Margules of BoulderLight Pictures.
Having an A-list action star like Josh Brolin, especially one who has been involved with such high-profile franchises as the MCU and Dune, will no doubt draw even more eyes to Cregger's upcoming feature. We're still waiting to hear exactly when Weapons will debut on the 2024 movie schedule, but in the meantime, you can see Brolin kicking ass onscreen in the Dune sequel, which hits theaters on Friday, March 1.
And just because Pedro Pascal won't be in Weapons doesn't mean you'll have to miss him onscreen for too long—along with his aforementioned projects, he also has the love drama Freaky Tales, the ensemble comedy The Uninvited and the film-noir thriller Tropico coming up in the near future. Again, we need a nap just thinking about his calendar.
