Pedro Pascal Shares on The Last of Us New Episode
Pedro Pascal still can’t wrap his head around what he witnessed in the new episode of The Last of Us that released on April 20.
In season two, episode two, the 50-year-old actor’s character Joel Miller was killed by Abby (Kaitlyn Denver) out of revenge over him murdering her father. Pascal knew what his character’s fate would look like as the series was adapted from the hit video game The Last of Us Part II. However, that doesn’t mean he’s fully processed it and is currently in denial.
I can't believe that they managed to make joel's death even more brutal in the show. I will never recover from this pic.twitter.com/rxcRi1UA7e
— ash | 165 days (@onlyxmcbride) April 21, 2025
“I realize this more and more as I get older. I am slipping into denial that anything is over,” the Moon Knight actor told Entertainment Weekly (EW). “I know that I’m forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on The Last of Us.”
The Mandalorian actor claimed there was always an understanding that the series would stay true to the original story, so his death felt more of a matter of how and when. Still, he added, “It’s not like they said, ‘Hey, we kill you at the beginning of season 2.’”
Co-showrunner Craig Mazin thought the most challenging part was seeing Bella Ramsey watch the scene play out because of how close the duo are to each other. “They worked hand in glove; they care deeply about each other. If you’re going to pretend to be at that moment, it’s probably a simple thing, but this isn’t pretend,” he told EW.
“I can tell you just being in that room, it’s happening: The pain that [Ellie’s] feeling there and then that rage. That is not calculated or synthetic,” Mazin added. “It was hard to feel like we were breaking something that we had all spent so carefully building and making work.”
Ramsey claimed they’ve “never cried reading a piece of writing before, but I had such a gastral reaction to it.”
“It’s almost like we’ve played that dynamic, me and Pedro [Pascal], for a year, and it feels like father-daughter in some way,” she continued. “I think my reaction to that being over was gradual. Also, knowing that would be the end of Pedro [Pascal] and us working together in this capacity.”
I just finished The Last Of Us S2 E2
— Inker comics (@Inker_comics) April 21, 2025
It felt so…. Underwhelming.
never played the game but I already knew what happened.
Joel's death felt so off… Like… If he wasn't even important to this season.
He didn't even got a lot of dialogue.
Was it like this in the game? pic.twitter.com/HBpakzUMyG
The next episode of The Last of Us season two premieres on April 27 at 9 p.m. on MAX.
