The Pascal Pulse - Issue 52

Happy Pride Month!

Before we get too deep into our last Pride editorial of the month, we want to address something we’ve heard mentioned a couple times over the past few weeks: that we posted “too much Pride content.”

It didn’t really occur to us as an option. Celebrating Pedro means celebrating every part of who he is and what he stands for, including his support of LGBTQ+ folks and his commitment to kindness, acceptance, and humanity.

Pedro told Claire Rowden of MTV UK that he is fighting “for our joy and our humanity, decency, our love of each other and all forms.” We love that quote because it’s something Pedro has been saying (and fans have loved hearing) for years: be kind to people, love people for who they are, and remember we’re all in this together.

That message is important. Especially for LGBTQ+ people, seeing someone use their platform to spread awareness and remind people that everyone deserves dignity, respect, and the ability to be their true selves can mean everything.

This was our first Pride Month covering content for The Pascal Pulse, and it made us think about what kind of community we want to help build here. Some of our Pride posts were silly. Some were silly with meaning behind them. Each one came from a place of pride, of supporting one another, and wanting to foster connection. We know we can always do more moving forward, and next Pride we’d love to highlight more of the queer fans, artists, writers, and creators who make this community so special.

We’d also like to thank Maiev specifically. Many of our conversations about what we wanted to cover for Pride started with her. As The Pascal Pulse’s queer editorial team member, these topics are personal to her. Maiev brought so much thoughtfulness, authenticity, and heart to every conversation about our Pride content. We couldn’t ask for a better partner to help us cover these topics, and we are so thankful she’s on our team.

Something we love about our team is we all come from different backgrounds and experiences. Maiev contributed her voice and expertise to a lot of our Pride content this month, while Jackie and Melissa are proud allies that believe in supporting and celebrating LGBTQ+ people in our lives. For us, celebrating Pride has never been about politics. It’s about real people. LGBTQ+ people are our family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and members of this community we care about.

Above all else, we want to thank each of you. Thank you for reading our posts, engaging with us, and helping us create a safe space where creativity, friendship, silliness, and kindness can flourish.

We won’t let hurtful words overshadow our memories of this month. Life is messy (as Pedro has said) and we’re all doing the best we know how. What we’ll remember are the talks we had with each other. The folks we checked in with. How real community happens when we decide to create space for each other. That’s what we’ll remember.

As we say farewell to Pride Month, we can’t stop thinking about Pedro’s words on fighting for joy. To us, that looks like choosing kindness, leading with empathy, and lifting each other up whenever possible.

With San Diego Comic-Con season officially underway, one of the first indicators that SDCC is right around the corner each year has started going up: Gaslamp Quarter banners in downtown San Diego. The SDCC Unofficial Blog reported that banners for SDCC 2026 have started popping up throughout the downtown area and the streets around the convention center are starting to look colorful. Comic-Con attendees may not have panel listings, exclusives, or offsite announcements yet to get excited about, but that hasn’t stopped the good people at Gaslamp Quarter from reminding the city of San Diego that Comic-Con is only a couple of months away. SDCC 2026 will be held July 23–26 this year, with Preview Night kicking things off on July 22. While we wait patiently (or impatiently) for things to be revealed about SDCC 2026, there are some things that Marvel fans will be excited to see/hear about. Among the most anticipated reveals at Comic-Con this year are whatever Marvel Studios has planned for Avengers: Doomsday and their return to Hall H. We’re also crossing our fingers to see Pedro along with the rest of the Fantastic Four cast appearing on stage in Hall H with Robert Downey Jr. and the rest of the Avengers cast. If that happens, it’ll be one of the biggest moments of the convention.

Behemoth! is already generating excitement months ahead of its release. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tony Gilroy's first feature film in 14 years is among the projects most likely to premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, a launchpad that has become increasingly important in the awards season race.

In Behemoth!, Pedro stars as a cellist who returns to Los Angeles for session work and is forced to confront the relationships, choices, and unfinished chapters that shaped his life. With an acclaimed cast that includes Will Arnett, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, and Matthew Lillard, the film is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated titles of the fall.

Nothing is official yet, but if Behemoth! does make its way to Venice, it could mark the beginning of a major festival and awards season journey for one of Pedro's most intriguing upcoming projects.

A new behind-the-scenes photo shared by The Late Show Social Media Associate Producer Maite Elias-Nava offers a glimpse of Pedro and Julia Louis-Dreyfus preparing to film their memorable segment for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

The Mandalorian and Grogu continues to prove that audiences are eager to see Din Djarin and his adopted son on the big screen. The film has now earned more than $315 million worldwide, making it the 7th highest-grossing movie of 2026 and one of the year's biggest theatrical successes.

With competition from major summer releases, the film has continued to draw fans weeks after its debut, showing the lasting popularity of these beloved characters and the strength of the Star Wars franchise. Every ticket sold helps push the film higher up the annual box office rankings, and there's still plenty of room for it to climb.

And if you're looking for a Father's Day activity today, The Mandalorian and Grogu is still playing in theaters. What better way to celebrate than with one of the most beloved father-son relationships in modern pop culture?

As an added bonus, you can experience the film with director Jon Favreau’s in-theater commentary through the free TheaterEars app. Just bring your earbuds and hear stories from behind the making of the movie while you watch. The app is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Did you know we’ve been writing newsletters and filling your inbox for one full year? We have lots of feelings and memories and thank-yous we want to share, but we will save those for the anniversary edition.
But just a short note to say thank you to all our readers (hello! 👋), who have read, subscribed to, shared with friends, contributed to and encouraged us through the past 52-ish newsletters. We couldn’t have done it without you!

We also have some housekeeping to announce, along with a few little updates sprinkled in. Expect some tweaks to our appearance, a give away, and several dozen half-baked ideas our ADHD brains have been quietly whipping up behind the scenes. Will they all come to fruition? Past experience suggests probably not. 😂 But a couple may just pan out, and we can’t wait to share more. Oh, and just to pile on the anniversary markers, June also happens to be Mel’s 5 year anniversary of running StainsofPascal. ❤️

This Monday, we're celebrating one of our own: our editor, Jackie. If you’ve read The Pascal Pulse for any length of time you’ve encountered her touch whether you know it or not. She’s our voice of reason, our ability to step back and see the big picture, and our “hummm…maybe that paragraph you wrote doesn’t make ANY sense” friend. She also reminds us to italicize movie titles and reel us back in when one of our paragraphs decides to go on too many tangents.

She’s also unique in that she’s not entrenched in the fandom (she has seen the scary side and says no thank you). She helps us pull back, rethink, and slows us down when we need to see details the rest of us might miss. Need someone to tell you that your paragraph is garbage? Got a movie title you forgot to italicize? Want to say something, but can’t figure out how? Jackie does it all and she makes us better.

Jackie is also wonderfully gifted at connecting people. While she's very much a behind the scenes member of our team, she has a knack for building relationships, opening doors, and helping us make meaningful connections. She’s thoughtful, perceptive, and never afraid to speak truth to our fandom madness.

Most of all…she’s a wonderful friend and an integral part of this team. Her guidance, encouragement, laughter, and sanity checks are what help make The Pascal Pulse what it is today. We’re so glad you’re in our lives.

Happy Birthday Jackie! We love you, we appreciate you, and we hope your day is full of joy, laughter, and lots of celebrations. Thank you for doing everything you do for us, our readers, and this silly newsletter.

Editor’s note: As you can see, Jackie did not get to proofread this birthday tribute to herself. If there are any spelling errors, missing italics, grammatical errors, and run on sentences we own them. She’ll find at least three mistakes after this publishes, five minutes after it publishes.

In celebration of Father’s day we had fun writing what notes we would send to some of Pedro’s favorite dads: from unlikely fathers of circumstance to hot mess guardians and beautifully dysfunctional men that somehow became in charge of another person.

Some are literal dads. Some are dads by choice. Some are “don’t let this man reproduce, yet we’ll take him anyways” dads. Essentially it’s our mini ode to all the Pedro characters that portray fatherhood as sexy, tumultuous, humorous, intense and sometimes extremely stressful.

To Din Djarin:

Happy Father’s Day to the man who accidentally became a dad, tried very hard not to have feelings about it, and then immediately made that tiny green baby his entire personality. You may not say much, but we know you love loudly in helmet tilts, dramatic rescues, and snacks carefully stored for Grogu.

To Joel Miller:
Happy Father’s Day to the grumpiest, most emotionally repressed dad in the apocalypse. You pretend you are just “doing what needs to be done,” but we all know you would walk across the country, fight half of humanity, fix a staircase, build a porch, and still act like saying “I care about you” is too much cardio.

To Marcus Moreno:
Happy Father’s Day to an actual superhero dad who somehow still got completely out-superheroed by his own daughter. You are brave, kind, supportive, and clearly aware that Missy is the real brains of the operation. Honestly, that might be your greatest superpower.

To Reed Richards:
Happy Father’s Day to the man who can stretch across dimensions, solve impossible science problems, and still somehow probably forget where he left the diaper bag. We hope your day is flexible, peaceful, and not interrupted by Doom, multiverse chaos, or anyone asking you to explain quantum anything before coffee.

To Oberyn Martell:
Happy Father’s Day to the coolest dad in Westeros, a man of passion, style, vengeance, and deeply dramatic family loyalty. We hope your day includes wine, sunshine, your daughters proudly causing problems, and absolutely no conversations near anyone called The Mountain.

To Max Lord:
Happy Father’s Day to a man who really took “I want it all” and made it everyone’s problem. Today, we hope you skip the magical wish-granting, step away from the glowing rocks, and simply enjoy a quiet brunch with Alistair. Maybe let Raquel handle the schedule, she already knows exactly when you have custody of him. Growth looks good on you. Please keep choosing that.

To Ezra:
Happy Father’s Day to the most poetic space menace we know. You would somehow turn a simple card into a long, beautifully confusing speech about survival, sacrifice, and the peculiar burden of keeping another living soul alive on a hostile moon. We would only understand about half of it, but we would absolutely nod along and feel strangely wiser by the end. Thank you for keeping Cee alive, teaching her lessons that are equal parts practical and alarming, and proving that even a scoundrel with one arm and questionable morals can care deeply about someone. You insist otherwise, of course, but we know better.

To Frankie Morales:
Happy Father’s Day to the helicopter dad with the baby girl, the tired eyes, and the backpack full of trauma. You may make some questionable group decisions in the jungle, but we know you are absolutely the dad checking the car seat twice, carrying extra snacks, and quietly trying to do better for your daughter every single day.

To Clint:
Happy Father’s Day to a man who was trying to leave the past behind, only to have the universe hand him a newborn, several terrible people, and absolutely no peaceful exit plan. You may have started out convinced you had nothing left to lose, but the second your little girl needed you, everything changed. Somewhere under the grit, the anger, and the very bad circumstances is a girl dad who would do anything to keep his daughter safe and give her a life far better than the one he thought he deserved. We hope today brings you a quiet moment, a Warriors ticket, a mixtape full of good tunes, and maybe a chance to just hold your little girl without anyone asking you to do one last job.

To Silva:
Happy Father’s Day to a man who raised a son, tended his land, loved deeply, and still somehow ended up having to make an impossible choice to save the person he loved. We are not saying your sheep are better children than Joe… but your sheep have never committed a murder, started a blood feud, or made you shoot the love of your life so he could get away from the law.

Here’s to a quiet day on the ranch with good wine, better company, and maybe Jake nearby, because after everything, you have more than earned a little peace.

Our Artist Spotlight this week features MJ, the creator of @mjediarts. MJ describes herself as a “nerdy gay gal who likes to draw.” As you can probably guess from that description, we love her work!

She draws the kinds of characters we adore- from Pedro-inspired icons and Star Wars babes to adorable Grogu and plenty of cutesy fandom hybrids. Whether MJ is crafting art of Din and Grogu, drawing the Fantastic Four, or capturing sweet cuddly moments in space, you can always tell her work was made with a fellow nerd in mind.

What really speaks to us about MJ’s art, though, is how much personality she pours into each piece. Her illustrations are fun, sweet, and unabashedly nerdy in the best ways. Creating from a place of love is something we try to foster in our own fandom spaces, and MJ’s art is a perfect example of why those spaces can be so amazing.

Be sure to give MJ a follow and check out more of her artwork at @mjediarts.

Pride is about joy, visibility, love, and community, but it is also about showing up in real, tangible ways. This month, if you are able, consider donating to organizations that support LGBTQ+ people through crisis care, mutual aid, advocacy, safety, and survival.

The Okra Project
The Okra Project is a Black Trans-led mutual aid organization supporting Black Trans people across the United States. Their work is rooted in community care and providing resources directly to people who are too often left without support.
Link: https://www.theokraproject.com/

The Trevor Project
The Trevor Project provides free, confidential crisis support for LGBTQ+ young people, 24/7, through phone, chat, and text. Their work is lifesaving, especially for queer and trans youth who need someone safe to reach out to.
Link: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

Rainbow Railroad
Rainbow Railroad helps LGBTQI+ people around the world find safety when they are facing violence, persecution, or danger because of who they are or who they love. Their work includes crisis response, relocation support, and emergency assistance.
Link: https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/

Outright International
Outright International works globally with activists and organizations fighting for LGBTIQ human rights. They help document human rights violations, support local movements, and advocate for equality and safety around the world.
Link: https://outrightinternational.org/

Even a small donation can be part of something bigger. This Pride Month, let’s celebrate loudly, love loudly, and give what we can. 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Created by Fans, for Fans

Maiev @LittleMrsMorales & Mel @StainsOfPascal & Jackie 💜

Special Thanks:

To Pedro - thank you for proving that sometimes, society does make the right person famous. Thank you for standing beside those who feel unseen, unheard, and uncertain of their place in the world. You remind us that visibility can be an act of grace.

To our readers - thank you for filling our inbox, our hearts, and this tiny corner of the internet with your brilliance. You turn a project into a community.

See you in the next issue!
Remember: you’re not too much.
You’re exactly the right amount of obsessed.
Until next time