Director reveals why Pedro Pascal dropped out of major role in film with 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating

Mystery horror releases in theatres on 8 August

Weapons director Zach Cregger revealed that Pedro Pascal was initially meant to play the lead role which eventually went to Josh Brolin.

In a new interview, Cregger said that several actors besides Pascal were part of the original cast of the mystery horror film but had to drop out because of scheduling conflicts after the 2023 SAG-AFTRA writer’s strike.

“I had a whole different cast for this movie,” the director told Entertainment Weekly. “And then we had the strike, and then Pedro Pascal’s schedule threw us into turmoil. I had to recast the entire movie.”

Weapons revolves around a small town in Pennsylvania, where 17 elementary school children wake up at the same time in the middle of the night and go missing.

Julia Garner plays Justine Gandy, the teacher of the class that goes missing, while Josh Brolin plays Archer Graff, the father of one of the missing children.

Brolin landed the role when Pascal dropped out.

Zach Cregger says his initial cast included Brian Tyree Henry of Atlanta and Eternals and Renate Reinsve of The Worst Person in the World (Getty)

Cregger said his initial cast also included Brian Tyree Henry of Atlanta and Eternals and The Worst Person in the World star Renate Reinsve.

“This is what happens, right?” he added. “The strikes delayed us, and then when you delay, people’s schedules get conflicts, and then you’re back at square one. I bear no ill will towards anybody. We just kept getting delayed and delayed. It is like a domino effect. So, I had to start over again.”

The Independent has reached out to Pascal’s representatives for comment.

The only actor from the original cast to eventually appear was Austin Abrams, known for his roles in The Walking Dead, Wolfs, and Euphoria.

Abrams told EW that he loved the part and “didn’t wanna let it go”. The actor also said he’d wanted to work with Cregger since seeing his 2022 sleeper hit Barbarian.

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Pedro Pascal stars in a series of films in 2025 (Marvel/Disney)

Pascal stars in a series of films in 2025, starting with Celine Song’s Materialists in June, alongside Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans, followed by Ari Aster’s Eddington and Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps in July.

Early reviews of Weapons have been promising and the movie has received a 100 per cent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Julia Garner and Josh Brolin in Zach Cregger's Weapons (Warner Bros Pictures)

It was reported last year that Weapons had sparked a bidding war among rival studios after Cregger unveiled his script. It eventually sold to New Line for $38m and the deal included Cregger getting the final cut.

“That mystery is going to propel you through at least half of the movie, but that is not the movie,” Cregger told EW earlier this year about the film’s central story.

“The movie will fork and change and reinvent and go in new places. It doesn't abandon that question, believe me, but that's not the whole movie at all. By the midpoint, we've moved on to way crazier s*** than that.”

Weapons releases in theatres on 8 August.