Pedro Pascal Continues Mission To Star In Everything, Will Lead New Film From Barbarian Director

Pedro Pascal can't stop and won't stop, and we wouldn't have it any other way. The actor who's still fresh off his acclaimed turn in "The Last Of Us" and gearing up for the "Gladiator" sequel has just added a new movie to his schedule; he's set to star in Zach Cregger's next horror film, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Horror fans will recognize Cregger as the writer-director behind last year's totally bonkers movie, "Barbarian," which became a word-of-mouth hit for its utterly unpredictable thrills and twists. His next film is called "Weapons," and while the plot remains under wraps, THR describes it as "an interrelated, multistory horror epic." The film has also, oddly, garnered comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia," the emotional 1999 film that featured a sprawling cast of characters in various states of progress (or lack thereof).

Whatever "Weapons" is, expectations will surely be high after "Barbarian" was lauded as one of the wildest movies of 2022. The film was marketed as a chiller about a woman (Georgina Campbell) whose stay at a double-booked rental house alongside a stranger (Bill Skarsgard) led to something creepy. The exact nature of the creepy thing, though, was kept secret until the film eventually exploded into a gnarly, grotesque, darkly funny body horror movie that defies all explanation. /Film's Ryan Scott called it "singular and refreshingly original," and that originality turned "Barbarian" into a box office hit and launched a bidding war over "Weapons."

Weapons inspired a bidding war, but plot details are still under wraps

This is just the most recent fantastic-sounding role Pedro Pascal has nabbed this year, after news broke that the actor would be joining Ridley Scott's "Gladiator" sequel and the lesbian road trip film, "Drive-Away Dolls." The actor has been on an absolute roll, earning ample accolades for his turn as gruff apocalypse survivor Joel in "The Last Of Us" and continuing to headline the most reliably good "Star Wars" show on Disney+, "The Mandalorian." Pascal's big year has really been a few big years in a row, though, as he also starred opposite Nicholas Cage in "The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent" in 2022.

The "Barbarian" team (Zach Cregger, Roy Lee, J.D. Lifshitz, and Raphael Margules) will be producing "Weapons," with Cregger on board after closing a reported eight-figure deal to write and direct, per THR. Miri Yoon is also set to produce the New Line film. "Weapons" has no release date, but if it is a kaleidoscopic story in the vein of "Magnolia," we expect more casting announcements are still to come.