Why Is Pedro Pascal Always Playing This Kind of Character?

Like every sentient being with a pulse, Ashley Hesseltine and Rayna Greenberg from Girls Gotta Eat have succumbed to Pedro Pascal fever. 

“He was on the red carpet at Cannes,” they said, and “he was just blowing kisses and being silly.” Truly, there are fewer greater joys than watching Pedro Pascal rock a black muscle tank while basking in his well-deserved stardom. 

But Ashley and Rayna’s Pedro Pascal discourse sparked a revelation about the heartthrob (who is apparently single, or at least not in a public relationship, and child-free): Have you noticed that Pascal has played a very similar character over and over again? 

Here’s the thing—if we had a quarter for every time Pascal played a reluctant father figure shepherding a sassy adolescent through a perilous landscape, we’d have a dollar. Which isn’t a lot of money, but it’s enough to warrant a look back at all the times Pedro Pascal has been daddy—sorry, all the times he’s played a dad.

The Last of Us (2023-Present)

This is the show everyone’s talking about right now, so we won’t spoil the latest season. But here’s what you need to know: Joel (Pascal) is an ex-special forces smuggler who is surviving an apocalyptic pandemic. Cordyceps, a parasitic fungus, turns human beings into zombie-like “infected” hosts. Joel is tasked with delivering Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl who is immune to the parasite, to a group of scientists on the other side of the country. While he initially sees Ellie as cargo, Joel comes to love Ellie as his own daughter—and that love has devastating consequences.

The Mandalorian (2019-2023)

In this Star Wars spinoff, Pascal plays Din Djarin or “The Mandalorian,” a mysterious bounty hunter who is hired to deliver someone to the forces of the evil Galactic Empire. But when Mando discovers that the bounty in question is a child—initially dubbed “Baby Yoda” by fans and later revealed to be named Grogu—he goes rogue and takes the little green munchkin on as his ward. Although we don’t get to see Pascal’s beautiful face much in this series (the religion of his home planet, Mandalore, prevents him from removing it in the presence of others), he radiates “gruff and reluctant dad” energy even through his armor.

The Wild Robot (2024)

Did you know that Pascal voices Fink the fox in this animated epic? The Wild Robot is the story of ROZZUM 7134, a lost helper robot who ends up with the “task” of saving an orphaned gosling. Fink, a wiley fox, initially tries to steal the goose egg from “Roz” (Lupita N’yongo), but when he realizes that the robot is capable of providing him food, shelter, and protection from predators, he joins their little family. Though he’s initially selfish and cynical, Fink grows to love the gosling, Brightbill (Kit Connor) as his own. (Sound familiar?) He helps protect the young goose from the dangers of the forest, teaching him in his own, rather unconventional way, to survive. 

‘Prospect’ (2018)

In this underrated sci-fi gem, teenage Cee (Companion’s Sophie Thatcher) and her father Damon (Jay Duplass) are miners on a dangerous planet attempting to harvest valuable gems from the bodies of the organisms that live there. Pascal plays Ezra, an outlaw miner who attacks Damon and Cee. But when Ezra and Cee are forced into a partnership, they end up helping each other survive the hostile planet. Go figure.

As Ashley Hesseltine says, Pascal’s success “could not be happening for anybody better.” In addition to being handsome, charming, and an incredible actor, he is an advocate for women’s rights and trans rights and generally “on the right side of history.”

For more discussion of people we love in pop culture, listen to Girls Gotta Eat.