MOVIE NEWS – Pedro Pascal has become one of Hollywood’s busiest and most recognizable stars, but Behemoth! may finally give him the kind of leading role built entirely around the full range of his talent. The project also marks Tony Gilroy’s first feature-length directing effort since The Bourne Legacy in 2012, with the creator of Andor returning through a deeply personal story centered on music.

Pedro Pascal has maintained an almost constant presence in theaters over the past few years, although many of those appearances placed him within large ensembles rather than at the center of a film designed specifically around him. His 2025 releases included Materialists, Eddington, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, while 2026 brought one of the title roles in The Mandalorian and Grogu and another major MCU appearance in Avengers: Doomsday. Few actors currently possess comparable visibility or audience appeal, yet Pascal has rarely been given a theatrical leading role broad enough to draw equally on his dramatic intensity, humor, vulnerability, and restraint.

Vanity Fair raised that same point while unveiling the first images from Behemoth!, describing Tony Gilroy’s new film as the kind of substantial solo showcase Pascal has not previously received on the big screen. Until now, the production had remained largely mysterious, but interest was already considerable because Gilroy has not directed a feature since The Bourne Legacy arrived in 2012. In the years that followed, he earned widespread acclaim for creating and guiding two seasons of Andor, which only increased expectations surrounding his eventual return to cinema. The newly released material now offers both an early visual impression of the film and a clearer understanding of the intimate, character-focused story at its center.

Pascal plays Alex, a gifted cellist who has spent decades performing symphonic music across the United States before returning to Hollywood and re-entering the world of film scoring. Building the drama around music takes Gilroy away from the large-scale spectacle and political tension that defined much of his recent work, while preserving the careful character writing that has long been one of his greatest strengths. That emotional foundation immediately appealed to Pascal when he first encountered the screenplay. “I remember reading [the script] and being like, f*ck, I want this… There was something overall about this story that I think I connected to more cerebrally and emotionally. [Alex is] not a rock star. He’s not even somebody who’s looking for the spotlight. He’s just someone whose first language is music…. It’s a love letter to music; it’s a love letter to movies. It’s about family; it’s about legacy; it’s about healing. I wished for myself this kind of experience as an actor before I ever got to act, and now it’s coming very much later in my life and later in my career…. There was an instant kismet.”

The supporting cast brings together Will Arnett as Alex’s brother, Eva Victor as his love interest Nadia, Olivia Wilde as a former girlfriend, and Hank Azaria as his father. Matthew Lillard, Alexa Swinton, Margarita Levieva, Barry Livingston, Erik Griffin, and Adam Rose are also part of the production, although their roles have not yet been disclosed. For Gilroy, Behemoth! appears to be more than simply another directing project, as the filmmaker has spoken about once wanting to pursue music himself. He has reinforced that personal connection by inviting established film composers to create the scores for the fictional movies Alex works on throughout the story, giving the film’s musical world an unusual level of authenticity. No release date has been announced.

Source: MovieWeb