Dutton Ranch's Joaquin Actor Played An Inhuman In This Marvel TV Show
by Joe Roberts · /Film"Dutton Ranch" is a great showcase for Juan Pablo Raba, who plays Joaquin Reyes. Prior to portraying the 10 Petal Ranch fixer, Raba gained widespread notoriety for playing Gustavo Gaviria, cousin to Wagner Moura's Pablo Escobar on Netflix's "Narcos." Now, Taylor Sheridan's sprawling "Yellowstone" universe is helping shine more light on the Colombian actor, who at the same time he debuted on "Narcos," also appeared as José "Joey" Gutierrez in the third season of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
One of the things that allows "Dutton Ranch" to succeed where fellow "Yellowstone" spin-off "Marshals" failed are the characters. Whereas Luke Grimes' CBS procedural is populated by mostly two-dimensional caricatures animated by Chat GPT-esque dialogue, "Dutton Ranch" has a wealth of consistently compelling figures roaming its southern Texas landscape. Raba's Joaquin is just one example. Essentially the show's version of Jamie Dutton from "Yellowstone," Joaquin is a lawyer and fixer for the 10 Petal Ranch, a longstanding Rio Paloma institution that initially acts as a rival to Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) and Beth Dutton's (Kelly Reilly) own ranch.
There's not much need for Joaquin to be a particularly layered character. The show is full of interesting individuals who could quite easily carry the episodes without any more help. But Joaquin is just as intriguing as anyone else on the show, especially since he's clearly linked to a man many believe to be the secret villain of "Dutton Ranch." Long before he made the "Yellowstone" spin-off even more watchable than it already is, however, Raba was busy establishing himself stateside after decades of work in Latin American projects. He did so with "Narcos," but a month after that Netflix series debuted on the streamer, Raba debuted as an Inhuman in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Juan Pablo Raba's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. role was significant for him and the MCU
"Narcos" hit Netflix in September 2015, giving Juan Pablo Raba a significant platform with which to launch the U.S. side of his career. The role made him feel conflicted, however, as the actor's own uncle died as a result of the Pablo Escobar-orchestrated bombing of Avianca Flight 203 in 1989. As he told Interview Magazine, "There's a part of me, the Colombian part of me, which thought, 'Should I be doing this? Should I be portraying these characters, these delinquents, people who have done so much harm?'" Ultimately, he concluded, "We really have to [...] exorcise our past through these projects."
Less than a month later, Raba debuted in the more obviously positive role of José "Joey" Gutierrez in the Season 3 premiere of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." By that point, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" had become one of network TV's best shows and Raba only made it better. Gutierrez was the first openly gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, thereby bolstering the show's reputation for progressive representation. But there was more to this overlooked Raba role.
"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." was led by Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson, who by the third season had become director of the titular agency. Gutierrez first appears in the season premiere, "Laws of Nature," as an Inhuman, a member of a superhuman race whose powers are activated after coming into contact with the mist produced by Terrigen Crystals. Gutierrez gained his ability to melt metal after taking Nature Max Supplements Fish Oil tainted with the mist. Soon after, he was taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D as part of Coulson's mission to assemble a team known as the Secret Warriors, made up entirely of Inhumans.
Juan Pablo Raba left Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. after his career took off stateside
Joey Gutierrez remained part of "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." for six episodes, during which time the writers clearly drew a parallel between the character's sexuality and his experience of being an Inhuman, even while they downplayed its importance to the story overall. As his co-star Chloe Bennet, who played Daisy Johnson, told Variety, "I am mostly happy to see how nonchalant it was and how subtle it was and how no one made a big deal about it."
During his six-episode run, Gutierrez mastered his powers before being forced to kill Gabriel Salvador's Lucio to protect Lincoln Campbell (Luke Mitchell). This prompted his exit from the team. Behind the scenes, however, Juan Pablo Raba's Hollywood career was taking off.
Discussing his experience on the show during an interview with Los 40 Colombia (via Infobae), Raba said he "couldn't continue with the project because of an offer from another American series." But he also spoke proudly about portraying not only the first gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe but the first Colombian character. That was clearly important to the actor, who had previously spent much of his career in Latin American telenovelas — a topic he addressed in the same interview: "I enjoyed them a lot, they gave me food, shelter and education, I was simply curious to see how things were done over there [in the United States]."
Clearly, he liked what he found. Since playing the Inhuman, Raba has appeared in the Liam Neeson action movie "The Marksman" and starred opposite Laurence Fishburne in 2018 drama "Imprisoned." "Dutton Ranch" is his latest project, and has allowed him to indulge a little of that soap opera sensibility for which he's so grateful.