2023’s been a dynamite year for Pedro Pascal so far. First, he finally debuted as Joel Miller in The Last of Us Season 1, which HBO Max subscribers can stream in its entirety now, and that was followed by The Mandalorian Season 3, which wrapped up for Disney+ subscribers a few weeks ago. Both of those shows have enthusiastic fanbases, and they’ll both return at yet-to-be-announced dates, but in the meantime, it’s been revealed that Pascal has lined up a major Hollywood production.
The actor is reportedly in final negotiations to join Gladiator 2, the long-awaited sequel to the 2000 movie that scored Russell Crowe the Academy Award for Best Actor and propelled his acting career to new heights. While no details about who Pascal would play were shared, Deadline did mention that he’d been looking for something to work on before The Last of Us Season 2 starts shooting, and the opportunity to participate in Gladiator 2 “was too hard to pass up.”
This is one of four feature-length films that Pedro Pascal now has coming ups with Strange Way of Life premiering later this month at the Cannes Film Festival, Drive-Away Dolls coming out this September, and Freaky Tales not yet being dated, though it wrapped principal photography in January. The last time Pascal was seen performing in something cinematic was in April 2022, which saw the release of both The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, which played theatrically, and The Bubble, which is viewable with a Netflix subscription. His other big film appearances include Kingsman: The Golden Circle, The Equalizer 2, If Beale Street Could Talk, Triple Frontier and Wonder Woman 1984.
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News of Pedro Pascal signing up for Gladiator 2 arrives less than a week after it was reported that Connie Nielsen and Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn are coming aboard, the former reprising Lucilla from the first movie, and the latter set to play Emperor Caracalla. The sequel’s cast also includes Paul Mescal taking over the role of Lucius Verus and Barry Keoghan playing Publius Septimius Geta, who ruled Rome alongside his brother Caracalla and their father. Denzel Washington will also reunite with director Ridley Scott on Gladiator 2 for the first time since they worked together on American Gangster, but no details about his character have been disclosed.
Behind the scenes, along with Ridley Scott siting back in the director’s chair and David Scarpa writing the script, Gladiator 2 also brought back the following vets from the original movie: John Mathieson as director of photography, Arthur Max as production designer and Janty Yates as costume designer. Although Gladiator was a co-production between DreamWorks and Universal, the former will not be involved with the making of the sequel, though the latter can still partner with another company once the project is packaged.
Gladiator 2 is slated to hit the big screen on November 22, 2024. While we wait for more news on how it’s coming along, take a look at the 2023 new movie releases to see what’s already arrived this year and what’s left to come out.
