The Huge Marvel Series Pedro Pascal Auditioned For Before Fantastic Four
Once Pedro Pascal landed his first major role, as Oberyn Martell, aka the Red Viper, on HBO's "Game of Thrones" in 2014, his career, fittingly, became red-hot as he moved on to such massive hit series as "Narcos," "The Mandalorian," and "The Last of Us." After "Game of Thrones," though, he flirted with a role on a Marvel television series that may have changed the trajectory of his career.
On the heels of rampant rumors that Marvel has reportedly tapped Pascal to play Reed Richards in "Fantastic Four," the actor revealed that he previously auditioned for a role in a different Marvel project — albeit a much smaller one. During a February 2024 conversation with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Pascal recalled that after working on "Game of Thrones," he tried out for a part on the original Netflix series "Daredevil," and during these auditions, he separately landed a lead role on "Narcos."
"This is a major [confession]. I did audition for ['Narcos,' but] I did not get the part," Pascal said. "They offered it to somebody else, and then that person fell out. But at that point, the fourth season of 'Game of Thrones' was airing, and when the actor fell out of the role, I was auditioning for 'Daredevil' for Marvel. It was a supporting character. ... Character Number 6. He was a lawyer, I can't remember the name."
Suddenly, Pascal found himself stuck between two different shows on the same streaming service. It seemed, however, that the makers behind "Narcos" were determined to win out over "Daredevil."
Narcos became Pascal's breakthrough role
Since "Narcos" presented a lot more promise, Pedro Pascal said he had no choice but to stop pursuing the nondescript "Daredevil" role in favor of a key turn as Drug Enforcement Administration agent Javier Peña, which effectively catapulted his career to a whole new level. "I was going to test for [the 'Daredevil'] role, and so to intercept the test, they ended up offering me 'Narcos,'" the actor said. "It was Netflix against Netflix."
Pascal has had breakthrough success in films too, with starring roles in "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" in 2017 and "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent" — opposite Nicolas Cage as a heightened version of himself — in 2022. On top of that, the makers of the "Star Wars" franchise have announced that a Mandalorian and Grogu live-action movie is coming soon. Pascal has come a long way from "Game of Thrones" and "Narcos," and the purported "Fantastic Four" part could further establish him as a big-screen star.
As fate would have it, Marvel Studios eventually made Netflix's "Daredevil" part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. So if his rumored "Fantastic Four" casting proves to be true, it's conceivable that Pascal could finally cross paths with the Man Without Fear.