Pedro Pascal shares why he thinks more films take on Pablo Escobar as the main character. The Narcos regular, who plays DEA agent Javier Pena, may have already moved on from "El Patron" after the second season of the hit Netflix series, but people are continually interested in the man who made a huge fortune by dealing cocaine.
Over the years, there have been different iterations of the life of Pablo Escobar, the known Colombian drug kingpin, on the big and small screen. There is Wagner Moura's performance in Narcos, Benicio del Toro's take in romantic thriller Escobar: Paradise, and this year Javier Bardem has his own iteration via the Spanish drama, Loving Pablo. Each of the aforementioned projects shines a different light on the Medellin cartel big boss: the clever drug syndicate leader, a ruthless man when it comes to people who cross him, and a passionate lover. Several other films, while not entirely focusing on Escobar, use his Medellin cartel as a plot device like Bryan Cranston's The Infiltrator and even Tom Cruise's upcoming American Made. That said, Pascal thinks that the fascination of Escobar is not actually of Escobar. Instead, he says it lies is in the dangerous world of drug trafficking.
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Screen Rant recently sat down with the Chilean-born American actor while promoting his latest film, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Pascal explained what he believes is the main draw of a figure from the wrong side of history, like Escobar:
"I would say it isn't necessarily specific to Escobar - it's a Narco-trafficking story we're telling on the series Narcos anyway, so we're beyond the Escobar chapter. And it's industry and it's the age old story of struggling for power and whether it's mountains of coke or mountains of gold or whatever it's all about money and power and seems to fascinate people quite a lot."
In hindsight, Pascal has a point. Many fans were initially worried that the end of Escobar's stint on Narcos also meant that it was the end of the show altogether. Little did fans know at that time, that the story will continue, only with a different and arguably bigger target in the Cali Cartel. Headed by Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela (Francisco Denis) and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela (Damian Alcazar), the Cali Cartel was admittedly not as popular as the Medellin Cartel, but it was actually more massive than Escobar’s operation in real-life. And in the end, tackling their story is surprisingly more interesting and made for a better installment of the Netflix series than Escobar's.
With that in mind, we can expect more narco-centric films and TV shows moving forward. As previously mentioned, we will expect a dose of Pablo Escobar and his drug syndicate in Cruise's American Made. As for Narcos, the Netflix original could progress to its next target, possibly the Mexican drug gangs considering how season 3 ended.
Next: Escaping Pablo Escobar Makes For an Improved Narcos in Season 3
Narcos season 3 is currently available in its entirety on Netflix.