De Noche is back on track with a new star after Joaquin Phoenix’s controversial exit. The LGBTQ romance, which will be directed by Todd Haynes (Carol, May December), follows two men who travel to Mexico from California in the 1930s.

Joaquin Phoenix was set to star in the movie opposite Captain America: Brave New World star Danny Ramirez. However, Phoenix dropped out of the project five days before it was set to film in August 2024.

The reasons for this remain unknown, though it seems unlikely that it was due to the movie’s content, given the fact that Phoenix was directly involved with the movie’s development and brought it to production company Killer Films himself.

Per ᴅᴇᴀᴅline, De Noche is now being revived. The movie is expected to begin filming in Guadalajara, Mexico, in early 2026. The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal, who recently played a major role in Killer Films’ romantic dramedy Materialists, is in talks to take the lead role. Danny Ramirez is set to remain on board as co-star.

What This Means For De Noche

One of the main reasons that De Noche stalled is the fact that Phoenix’s star power was what made the movie a strong enough commercial prospect for it to get made in the first place. However, Pascal (who recently co-starred with Phoenix in Ari Aster’s Eddington), provides just as much star power for the Todd Haynes movie, if not more.

Pascal has been at the center of a number of major projects in recent years. After breakout roles in the shows Game of Thrones and Narcos, he went on to even wider fame when he played the тιтle role in the Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian.

Pascal has since gone on to earn four Emmy nominations and star in a variety of major projects, including the superhero movies Wonder Woman 1984 and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He will also be reprising his Star Wars role in the upcoming The Mandalorian and Grogu, a movie set to debut on May 22, 2026.

Our Take On The De Noche Update

In addition to being good news for the movie in general, Pedro Pascal being in talks to join De Noche could be very good news for Danny Ramirez.

While the up-and-coming actor has held supporting roles in major projects, including Captain America 4, Top Gun: Maverick, and The Last of Us season 2 (his first time co-starring with Pedro Pascal, though they are also both set to appear in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday), De Noche finally offers him the chance to be a co-lead in a major project.

Thanks to the attention brought to the project by a potential Pedro Pascal lead role, De Noche could be the start of a new chapter for Ramirez, allowing him to pursue more front-and-center roles in even bigger movies from then on.