Pedro Pascal responds to Nicolas Cage choosing 'Star Trek' over 'Star Wars': 'He's just smarter than us'

It’s a great time to be Pedro Pascal. The amicable Chilean-born actor has two of the most popular shows airing right now in The Last of Us and The Mandalorian. He has a built a passionate fan army ready to defend him against inane red carpet tomfoolery. He just knocked his Saturday Night Live hosting gig out of the park.

In the immortal words of Charlie Sheen, Pascal is winning.

So we hated to deliver news of a rare L to the man: Pascal’s (unofficial) pitch to recruit his Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent bromantic co-star Nicolas Cage to the Star Wars Mando-verse has flamed out.

“I’m not really down,” Cage told us candidly a few weeks ago. “I'm a Trekkie, man. I'm on the Star Trek Enterprise. That's where I roll … I'm not in the Star Wars family. I'm in the Star Trek family.”

Pascal took the news like the gentleman he has proven to be.

“You know, Nic is one of the smartest people I've ever met,” Pascal told us while promoting the new season of The Mandalorian. “And I think that makes sense in terms of how cerebral and puzzle-making a lot of Star Trek is. I will admit that it was a little over my head as a child. It lands on me so much more as an adult. So he is just sort of smarter than us.

“That doesn't mean that you would have to prefer Star Trek over Star Wars. Because you can have both, absolutely. But I can identify [with] his intellectual loyalty to Star Trek.

“He’s a dedicated fan.”

At least they’ll always have Paddington 2.

The Mandalorian: Season 3 is now streaming on Disney+.

Watch our full interview with Pascal: