Pedro Pascal’s Funeral Song Choice Is More Meaningful After Super Bowl LX

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The world is still buzzing from Super Bowl LX, and while the game had its thrills, the real earthquake happened during the halftime show. When Bad Bunny kicked open the door to a reconstructed "Casita" on the 50-yard line, fans were in for a treat as they witnessed a surprise guest list that felt like the world's most exclusive house party.

Right there, shimmying alongside Cardi B and Jessica Alba, was a bespectacled and beaming Pedro Pascal. For casual viewers, it was a fun celebrity easter egg. But for those who have followed Pascal’s career—and his deeply personal relationship with music—this was far more meaningful than a cameo flex. It was a full-circle moment for a man who famously claimed he was "raised by HBO, Spielberg, and Prince."

Decades after Prince delivered the definitive halftime performance in a literal downpour, Pascal finally got to step onto that same sacred turf, proving that his "lifelong" love of an anthem like "Purple Rain" is about the joy of being part of the universal language right now.

Pedro Pascal Describes "Purple Rain" As Exactly What It Is: A Masterpiece

An Anthem Of A Title Track

Take The Last of Us and The Mandalorian & Grogu star Pedro Pascal and his "lifelong" love of the iconic musician Prince, for instance. In an interview with the spicy chicken wing-based chat show Hot Ones, Pascal revealed that he has such a deep affection for the artist from Minnesota that he'd like the musician's song "Purple Rain" to be played at his funeral.

It's my favorite song. It's the most moving song. I don't know why it always emerges, even before I actively started implementing it into my spiritual routine, essentially. I didn't go to church; I was raised by HBO, Spielberg, and Prince, and for me, Purple Rain is the most emotionally cathartic, the most musically sophisticated song that I can think of. If it's casually or spontaneously playing somewhere... I don't have the emotional space to go there, because it just moves me so deeply.

It resonates that an actor as emotionally savvy as Pascal would find such deep ground within "Purple Rain." But in 2026, that emotional depth is being tested on the grandest stages imaginable. As he prepares to bring Din Djarin to the big screen in The Mandalorian & Grogu (releasing May 22, 2026), and navigates the high-stakes drama of the MCU as Reed Richards in Avengers: Doomsday, Pascal continues to lead with the vulnerability he credits to Prince.

This is why he finds a chord within "Purple Rain." The song is not only an iconic rock album closer, but it also carries a reputation within Prince’s creative catalog as a "complete" work—much like the multi-layered performances Pascal is now known for across the Star Wars and Marvel universes.

Pascal hits the nail on the head with "Purple Rain." It's moving, emotional, and musically sophisticated. It’s as cathartic as a great acting performance, and unlike his journey in The Mandalorian & Grogu, you don’t need the Force to sense the strength of the power coming down in "Purple Rain."

Prince's Purple Rain Has The Legacy It Does For A Reason

The Heavenly Ascension Of Signature Songs

For Prince, Purple Rain was not only his sixth album, the title track of that record, and the soundtrack to a movie of the same name released the same year, but it was also his 1984 magnum opus. Purple Rain is a powerhouse of audio and visual musicality, with Prince as the figurehead of an equally fiery hot backing band in The Revolution. Together, they all took the world by storm in a way that not only enraptured the public in 1984, but also put a stamp on the back of the culture that's still being recognized today.

10 Songs That Define Prince's Career

Prince was a multi-talented, genre-bending music master, whose vocal and musical prowess knew no bounds over a long, varied career.

The peak of that Mt. Everest of heights, the heart of this thesis, the North Star in these constellations, is the title track. (The song) "Purple Rain" is euphoric. It is a guitar deity on Mt. Olympus, dining with the spirits of the blues, gospel, rock, R&B, and soul, making a heartfelt, all-aboard feast for a Prince that a king is only left to envy. While "Purple Rain" was far from Prince's final creative crown jewel in his spacious and otherworldly artistic career, the song and the album are arguably his most complete work.

Pascal hits the nail on the head with "Purple Rain." It's moving, emotional, musically sophisticated, and holds that energy for over eight minutes.

Pascal hits the nail on the head with "Purple Rain." It's moving, emotional, musically sophisticated, and holds that energy for over eight minutes. It's as cathartic as a great acting performance, and unlike The Mandalorian, you don't need to have the Force to sense the strength of the power coming down in "Purple Rain."