One of the leading stars of the popular television show Narcos has declared that producer Netflix should shut down the show if it cannot ensure the safety of its cast and crew.
Pedro Pascal, who has been a part of the show about drug-related crimes since the first season was aired in 2015, was talking to reporters in Los Angeles. “We got Pedro – who plays DEA agent Javier Peña – out at LAX Sunday and asked about the respected location scout who was murdered in an area near Hidalgo… The way Pedro sees it, everyone’s a target now, so something has to be done,” TMZ reported.
Narcos location manager Carlos Munoz Portal was shot dead by unidentified attackers in Mexico while finalising locations for the show. Portal was 37.
“We can’t do it if it’s not safe,” Pascal told TMZ. “We’re talking about lives. If they want to do it then they’ll figure it out in a safe way.”
Following the location scout’s death, the brother of Pablo Escobar, the cocaine smuggler whose rise and death were depicted in the first two seasons, issued a threat to Netflix. Roberto De Jesus Escobar Gaviria, who holds the intellectual property rights to Escobar’s story, said that if Netflix fails to pay him a billion dollars, he would close their “little show”.
Narcos is currently in its third season, which focuses on the Cali Cartel that filled the vacuum created by Escobar’s death in 1993. The fourth season is expected to be shot in Mexico, which has seen its share of horrific drug crime-related deaths in recent years.