Pedro Pascal says Joel’s fate in Last of Us Season 2 will ‘surprise' us
It sounds like our membership to the golf club has been revoked, as Pedro Pascal teases that the events of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II could be switched up for HBO's live-action adaptation. Those who've played the 2020 video game will know what should be coming but don't expect it to go down like that.
While The Last of Us was originally set to make the leap to the silver screen, it eventually emerged from development hell as a HBO series led by Game Director Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl's Craig Mazin. Season 1 made some big swings away from the source material, but largely, it didn't affect the core story.
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II
The Last of Us could change Joel's fate
This is your last chance to turn back, because let's be honest, a pretty major spoiler is coming if you haven't played The Last of Us Part II yet. Although the surprise was spoiled ahead of time thanks to a devastating leak that Druckmann called the worst day of his life, Joel's death at the hands of Abby Anderson is one of gaming's biggest twists.
Pitched as the heroic father figure of The Last of Us, the rug was pulled from beneath us all when Abby exacted revenge on Joel for killing her father at the end of 2013's The Last of Us. Living up to the brutal nature of this world, Joel had his head brutally caved in by a golf club.
Speaking to Deadline at Sundance, Pascal addressed Joel's looming demise and said, "I think that they're always going to find ways to build on the incredible source material that they have, and surprise us with how they can use that material in a different format, like a television show.
"But I wouldn't want to spoil it for anybody, and the truth is, I don't actually have all of the information, as of yet." Interestingly, Mazin has previously suggested a similar twist on the games, meaning we're not sure what's going to happen to Joel...and when.
Changing Joel's fate would be a disservice to The Last of Us
Click to enlargeSome events are just too important not to play out in live-action. Imagine Game of Thrones if Robb and Catelyn Stark weren't murdered at the Red Wedding, or imagine if The Walking Dead didn't have Negan bash Glenn's brains out with a baseball bat. Personally, we just don't see Joel not taking a golf club to the head in The Last of Us.
Part II wasted no time killing off Joel in the first chapter, which would imply that we're going to be saying goodbye to Pascal pretty soon. The series has already played fast and loose with the timelines, and with Mazin suggesting Part II will play out over three seasons, we're hoping Pascal has an extended stay of execution.
Pascal is hopefully hinting that Joel won't kick the bucket just yet, and to be honest, we can imagine the first chapter of Part II spread out over Season 2, with a cliffhanger ending of Joel's demise leading into Season 3. Then again, we're not the writers, and as we've learned with HBO's adaptation, expect the unexpected.
