The White Boy Saved Us All Again in Gladiator II
A direct fall into the white savior narrative

José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal (Spanish: [xoˈseˈpeðɾo βalmaˈseða pasˈkal]; born April 2, 1975) is a Chilean and American actor. Known for his portrayals of parental figures, he has starred in television series and blockbuster films. His accolades include an Actor Award, in addition to nominations for a Golden Globe Award and four Primetime Emmy Awards. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2023. After nearly two decades of taking small roles on stage and television, Pascal's breakout roles came as Oberyn Martell in the fourth season of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones (2014) and as Javier Peña in the Netflix crime series Narcos (2015–2017). He achieved international stardom for his leading roles as Din Djarin in the Disney+ science fiction series The Mandalorian (2019–2023) and Joel Miller in the HBO post-apocalyptic drama series The Last of Us (2023–present), earning him a reputation for portraying adoptive father figures. His performance in The Last of Us earned him numerous accolades, including a SAG Award for Outstanding Male Actor in a Drama Series. In film, Pascal gained further recognition for starring in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Gladiator II (2024), Materialists and The Fantastic Four: First Steps (both 2025). His other films include The Great Wall (2016), Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), The Equalizer 2 (2018), and Triple Frontier (2019). He also provided voice work for the animated film The Wild Robot (2024). On stage, Pascal has appeared in various theatre productions. He made his Broadway debut as Edmund in a 2019 adaptation of King Lear. Description above from the Wikipedia article Pedro Pascal, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
A direct fall into the white savior narrative
I have been a long-time fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever since it made its official debut through 2008's absolutely excellent "Iron Man". The run continued, as did my associated fandom of the films, through the utterly EPIC 2019 finale "Avengers: Endgame".
Eddington attempts to capture how media is intertwined with the uncomfortable present.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single woman will be happiest if she marries a man with a good fortune, similar upbringing, matching attractiveness levels, and compatible politics.
Ultimately the problem with The Bubble is that it plays everything for laughs to get around the audience’s defenses. But it comes off like a privileged white male thinking that ridiculing everyone else equally is the road to equality. And it’s not. And it's definitely not funny to pretend that it is.
The power of a talented female director like Patty Jenkins and an overall diverse cast is what makes this film worth watching for me.