Game of Thrones showrunner remembers casting Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell

Pedro Pascal is a bona fide superstar right now, and it wouldn’t have happened if not for his breakout role on Game of Thrones.

Oberyn Martell swaggered onto Game of Thrones in the fourth season and completely stole it. As played by Pedro Pascal, he was dangerous, likable and maybe a bit over-confident: we all remember how he lost to the Mountain. If only he hadn’t spent as much time gloating…

Pascal’s turn as Oberyn kicked his career into overdrive. Soon he was getting offers from everywhere, and is now the face of Star Wars as Din Djarin in The Mandalorian. Speaking to Variety, Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff remembered casting him on Thrones.

"That was such a tricky role to cast. Oberyn entered the story mid-stream, but required the swagger of a character who had been sparring with the other players off-screen for years. We were looking for an actor with charisma, sexual energy, physical menace and depth. He had to be seductive to both men and women; he had to be someone the audience could believe as a killer. Oberyn has a core of white-hot rage that motivates him, and we wanted someone who could convey that anger but also be funny, when called upon, and sensitive, when called upon."

Bullseye. “He figures out who the character really is and then he portrays that man, scouring off all falsehood,” Benioff continued. “Plus, he’s really f—ing handsome.”

Funnily enough, Pascal actually recorded his audition on an iPhone, and not a good one. Benioff describes everything about the audition as “very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

The first thing Pascal shot was the scene where Oberyn agreed to be Tyrion’s champion in the trial by combat. He was nervous, but obviously nailed it.

“Once we saw the entire season there was no doubt Pedro was going to be a star,” Benioff said. “I thought he deserved more recognition, frankly. Was he nominated for any awards? He should have been. But [showrunner Dan Weiss] and I were thrilled that we gave Pedro a job that helped his ascent, because he’s an absolute gem of an actor and a man.”

You almost wonder if Benioff and Weiss ever considered keeping Oberyn around, but that never crossed their minds. “I mean, we love Pedro. And we loved that character,” Benioff said. “But his death at the hands of the Mountain was one of our favorite brutal killings from George’s books (which feature a few thousand brutal killings, so that’s saying something). Part of the reason people remember Oberyn is because he died so horribly. And if we hadn’t killed him, poor Pedro never could have done Narcos. So, it worked out. Not for Oberyn. But for the rest of us.”

Can’t argue with that.

Pascal will soon return to the small screen in the second season of The Mandalorian, which debuts on October 30!

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