Pedro Pascal Is Joining An $8 Billion Action Franchise Four Months After His Star Wars Movie Flopped With The Mandalorian & Grogu's Theatrical Underperformance

Pedro Pascal is bouncing back from a rough outing at the box office, and he's doing it in arguably the biggest way possible. His career, in part, took off thanks to Disney+'s The Mandalorian, the show that turned him into one of the industry's most in-demand stars of the 2020s. That momentum ran into trouble earlier this year when the show's big-screen spinoff, The Mandalorian and Grogu, failed to connect with audiences quite like Lucasfilm had hoped. Now Pascal is set to close out the year by helping lead one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood history.

As every MCU fan knows, Pedro Pascal is joining the Avengers franchise as Reed Richards in Doomsday, out in a few months on December 18, and he's expected to reprise the role again in Secret Wars, set for December 17, 2027. This jumping of franchises will happen about four months after The Mandalorian and Grogu left US theaters on August 6 after a 77-day run. The movie bowed with $345.7 million worldwide, less than every other Disney-era Star Wars film, including Solo: A Star Wars Story. It was an underwhelming theatrical return for Star Wars after seven years on streaming, to say the least.

Pascal first played Reed in 2025's The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which wrapped its run with $521.8 million worldwide. Nothing record-shattering by Marvel Studios standards but certainly better than his Star Wars movie did this year.

The Avengers franchise itself is on another level. From 2012's The Avengers through 2019's Avengers: Endgame, the series has earned more than $7.7 billion worldwide, making it one of the most successful franchises in Hollywood history. 

Avengers: Doomsday is expected to be one of 2026's highest-grossing releases, though catching up to Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which just crossed $2 billion worldwide, may be a tall order.

Pascal's role in Doomsday also seems larger than some might have expected. He lands fourth in the film's official billing order, behind only Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), and Thor (Chris Hemsworth), and ahead of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and the rest of the ensemble.

Even so, Pascal has been careful about how he frames his role in Doomsday. Describing Reed's mindset toward Doom, he told Entertainment Weekly, "Intellectuals understand that we're all responsible for ourselves." 

Doomsday's second trailer, unveiled at D23, confirmed Reed and Victor have history, with Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) describing Doom as someone who "used to be very different" and Reed aggressively confronting him: "Did you do this?!"

Speaking with reporters following the San Diego Comic-Con Hall H panel, Pascal explained that he approaches the character through a "very singular" way, pointed toward Doom and their relationship:

"The world that we're in, and the way that I understand it through Reed, at least, is very singular to the relationship that I have to Doom. And I guess there is a big barrier between the context that we all have as audience members to the experience of Avengers, and the incredible way that all of it is threaded together as we have X-Men sitting with us in this group. It's very easy for me to be single-focused through the perspective of the character as it relates to somebody like Victor Von Doom."

That singular focus is also why Pascal pushed back on an idea seemingly floated by First Steps director Matt Shakman in an earlier interview, that Reed leads the Avengers in the film. Speaking to the Associated Press (via Variety), Pascal called it "a bit of a mislead:" 

"It's big news to me, that's for one. I think Matt Shakman was doing an interview and when he was speaking about Reed... there is something that happens in the comics where he is sort of drawn in by the Avengers family and asked to be put into a leadership position. That is something that happens in the comics. It isn't necessarily something that my character's future entails. I am being honest in that. I am not even trying to avoid spoilers. It's a little bit of a mislead."

While for Reed, the story of Doomsday may be deeply personal, there's no escaping the super-sized feeling around this movie. With what's understood to be a massive budget comes lofty box office expectations. And in a year of Pascal playing a major role in two of Disney's biggest releases, there's going to be a clear winner come this December.

Why Doomsday Will Outgross The Mandalorian and Grogu

Wider Appeal & Momentum

Some fans have their doubts about how Doomsday will hold up, especially stacked against a monster like Endgame. But the Avengers brand has always been singularly cinematic and theatrical, the kind of event that pulls people into theaters in a way Disney+ spinoffs can't. 

It also helps that it's been over seven years since the last Avengers movie hit theaters. That kind of absence should work a lot better for Marvel than Star Wars' constant presence has worked for that franchise lately. 

And even though 2025 wasn't the most red-hot year for Marvel Studios at the box office, between Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Doomsday is already generating plenty of buzz coming off of SDCC and D23.

Riding the Spider-Man High

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is playing a role here, too, even indirectly. The movie is on track to become the third-highest-grossing film of all time, trailing only Endgame and 2009's Avatar. 

The thing about Spider-Man is that, at the end of the day, it's distributed by Sony Pictures, so audiences do see less of an MCU connection with these movies, and it didn't do much to set up Doomsday's story directly. But it's hard to ignore the shift in vibe it's created. People feel more excited about Marvel right now than they have in a long time. 

And then the big one. If word gets out that one of the live-action Spider-Men is popping up in Doomsday somewhere, that excitement could skyrocket.

Marvel Is Bigger Than Star Wars

At the end of the day, an Avengers movie is simply the biggest thing Marvel Studios has to offer, especially once Spider-Man is removed from consideration, since he still belongs to Sony. 

Looked at as a straight Disney slate comparison, Avengers was always going to be bigger than The Mandalorian and Grogu, mainly because that movie was a spin-off in Star Wars terms, not a flagship. 

Something closer to an Episode X-style movie might have stood a better chance of competing on Star Wars' behalf. Until Lucasfilm gets there, the hope for Star Wars rests on smaller bets like Ryan Gosling's Star Wars: Starfighter, which just debuted its first footage at D23.