Agent, provocateur

His role as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones (Season 4; 2014) made Pedro Pascal a household name. As the charismatic but vengeful Red Viper of Dorne, Pascal had memorable scenes with which to make his mark. And his storyline concluded with one of the most shocking moments in the show’s famously provocative run.

WHAT PASCAL ACHIEVES ON THE DISNEY SHOW THE MANDALORIAN IS QUITE REMARKABLE. THERE ARE SCENES IN WHICH HE BARELY MOVES, BUT IS ABLE TO COMMUNICATE — SOMETIMES WITH NO MORE THAN AN ALMOST UNNOTICEABLE TWITCH — PAGES WORTH OF EMOTION

As drug enforcement agent Javier Peña in Narcos (2015), one of the show’s three lead characters, Pascal was the only one who returned for all three seasons, before the show was spun off into Narcos: Mexico. As the show struggled to find new ways to evolve, Pascal moved on to bigger things.

Before being lassoed into submission by Diana Prince in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), the actor played the lasso-wielding Jack Daniels aka Agent Whiskey in director Matthew Vaughn’s satirical spy film Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017). It was a brief but flashy role, and Pascal managed to stand out alongside Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

As the failing businessman Maxwell Lord, clearly modelled on a young Donald Trump, Pascal embraced the kitschy tone of director Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman 1984. He has admitted in an interview to being inspired in some scenes by the master of hamming it up, Nicolas Cage.