Less Than Two Months After Production Start, ‘The Last of Us’ HBO Star Pedro Pascal Reportedly Wraps Filming On Season 2
[UPDATE: On March 26th, an HBO spokesperson told IGN that the below report is “not accurate” and that Pascal is still filming for Season 2. However, they provided no further details or information regarding his current workload. The original story follows below.]
In a strong a sign as any that the adaptation is teeing-up to take a swing at the series’ most controversial moment, a new report suggests that just two months after production commenced, star Pedro Pascal has already wrapped his filming duties for the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us.
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Word of Pascal’s apparently brief time on-set was first raised to the public on March 25th courtesy of noted film scooper Daniel ‘DanielRPK’ Richtman.
In a post to his personal Patreon account, as detailed by various outlets including Dexerto’s ScreenTime and The Hollywood Handle, Richtman revealed that not only had Pascal already finished his work on The Last of Us Season 2, but that he had already turned his attentions towards prepping for his upcoming role as the MCU’s second live-action incarnation of Mr. Fantastic.
Notably, should Richtman’s scoop hold water, this would mean that Pascal spent just a little under two months – filming on The Last of Us Season 2 began on February 12th – reprising his role as series protagonist Joel Miller.
Further, given how Dear Evan Hansen film adaptation star Kaitlyn Devers was recently cast as the series’ incarnation of The Last of Us 2 deuteragonist Abby, as fans (and critics) may have already surmised, this lack of need for Pedro’s continued talents really leaves only one point of speculation: That the HBO series is about to introduce a whole new audience to the game’s most infamous and insulting story beat.
[MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW FOR The Last of Us 2 and presumably HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2]
As seen in The Last of Us 2, in seeking revenge against Joel for having murdered her father at the conclusion of the first game during his attempt to save Ellie from the Fireflies, Abby not only eventually manages to track and hunt down the grizzled survivor across the Cordycep-infected American wasteland, but after doing so proceeds to kill him via repeated golf club strikes to the head.
And sadly for unaware fans of the television series, it is this attempt at ‘narrative subversion’ that they will soon be unpleasantly surprised with when they tune in for the next season.
[MILD SPOILERS END FOR The Last of Us 2 and presumably HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2]
While it has been known, especially given the end of the first season, that the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us would be adapting the events of The Last of Us 2, the television series’ production crew has been – and officially continues to remain – playing coy with whether or not they would be killing off Pascal’s Joel.
As recalled by IGN, asked during a March 2023 series press conference if the series would continue to take liberties in adapting its source material, showrunner Craig Mazin vaguely teased, “[Season 2] will be different just as this season was different.”
“Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it [won’t] be fairly different at all, but it’s going to be different,”
he added, still dodging around providing any concrete answers. “It will be its own thing. It won’t be exactly like the game.”
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