The Other Pedro Pascal Sci-Fi Western Thriller Fans Need To Discover

By Douglas Helm
| Published 10 seconds ago

Before you see Pedro Pascal in The Mandalorian and Grogu this summer, you should find out where he came from. One of his earliest successes was in an underrated sci-fi Western thriller called Prospect, released in 2018.

It’s an intriguing and scrappy film that began as a Kickstarter-funded short. If you want to check it out for free, you can stream it on the Tubi platform.

Prospect follows a man (Jay Duplass) and his teenage daughter, Cee (Sophie Thatcher), as they land on a forest moon to mine for gems. On the moon, they run into two rival prospectors, Ezra (Pedro Pascal) and his silent partner (Luke Pitzrick). While initially hostile to each other, they decide to join forces to uncover the legendary “queen’s lair,” which is a dig site rumored to be filled with riches.

Much like The Mandalorian, Pedro Pascal is teamed up with a young ward in Prospect, though under decidedly different circumstances. Both Pascal and Thatcher give great performances, which helps to carry the tight budget on which the sci-fi was made. It’s not a sci-fi laden with special effects, but if you love a good character-driven piece, this might be the right film for you.

When Pedro Pascal starred in Prospect, he was best known for his roles as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones and Javier Pena in Narcos. It was just before he rocketed to superstardom in projects like The Mandalorian, The Last of Us, and the upcoming Fantastic Four. As you might expect, Pascal gives a riveting performance as a prospector whose intentions are, at times, hard to read. 

The story before Pedro Pascal’s casting in Prospect is pretty interesting, too, as the directors and writers of the film, Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell, were mostly making commercials and short films through their Shep Films banner at the time. Eventually, they secured $21,000 on Kickstarter to make a short film of Prospect, which garnered attention at the SXSW Film Festival and became a viral hit on Vimeo. They would then get $4 million from Canadian BRON Studios to turn it into a feature-length production.

With $4 million still being a tight budget for a film, they then got access to a former ship-building warehouse to make many of the practical ships, costumes, and weapons for the film. It’s safe to say that nowadays, they wouldn’t have had the budget for Pedro Pascal to star, so it’s definitely cool to see him in a more indie-level project like Prospect. The film ended up getting pretty positive reviews, too, making it an overall success. 

Pedro Pascal’s Prospect is a perfect weekend double-feature pairing with Disney’s new, big-budget Star Wars adventure.