Pedro Pascal has had a series of banner years on both the big and small screens. Following his notable turn as General Acacius in 2024’s sequel Gladiator II, 2025 has spoiled Pascal fans with a range of characters to dive into, including the return of Joel Miller in HBO Max’s The Last of Us Season 2. Pascal recently starred in Celine Song’s (Past Lives) romantic comedy alongside Chris Evans and Dakota Johnson, followed by Ari Aster’s (Hereditary, Midsommar) dark dramedy contemporary western Eddington (which is currently in theaters) opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone. Additionally, Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated The Fantastic Four: First Steps, featuring Pascal as Dr. Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic — and also starring Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach — will release in theaters this Friday, July 25th.
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Now, Pascal’s genre-bending Freaky Tales will make its streaming debut exclusively on HBO Max in the U.S. on Friday, August 8th. The Lionsgate film also stars Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo, the late Angus Cloud, and Tom Hanks.
As described in the official synopsis, Freaky Tales, set in 1987 Oakland, California, “is a multi-track mixtape of colorful characters — an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teen punks, neo-Nazis, and a debt collector — on a collision course in a fever dream of showdowns and battles.”
Consisting of four interconnected stories, Pascal plays Clint, the aforementioned debt collector who takes on a disastrous job. The actor’s performance is arguably the strongest in the movie, which was written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, the duo behind 2019’s Captain Marvel. The filmmakers told ComicBook earlier this year that recreating the 1990s setting of the Brie Larson-led Marvel Cinematic Universe feature was more challenging than bringing Freaky Tales’ 1980s Oakland to life on-screen.
“I thought that the ’90s was way more challenging because it felt much less distant to me,” Fleck said. “I felt more like an adult in the ’90s … even though I was still a teenager … I also left high school in ’97, so I was feeling independent and on my own. In the ’80s, I was really a kid, and so it felt like the much more distant past to me, and so it felt much easier to make it feel period and nostalgic.”
Freaky Tales initially premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2024, and finally opened in theaters on April 4, 2025. Ahead of its HBO Max debut, Freaky Tales is also available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
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Image courtesy of Lionsgate
