Season 2 of HBO’s The Last of Us is currently filming in the Canadian province of British Columbia and Pedro Pascal, who plays post-apocalypse dad Joel Miller, has reportedly finished all of his parts just one month after filming began. If you’ve played Naughty Dog’s TLOU Part II, then you probably know why he’s allegedly wrapped so quickly.
The reports that Pascal is done filming TLOU season 2 comes from industry insider Daniel Richtman, who posted the news on March 25 on his locked Patreon page As Variety reported in December 2023, season two began filming on February 12 of this year. This would suggest that Pascal’s Joel may go out the same way Naughty Dog’s Joel did.
For those who haven’t played the 2020 post-apocalyptic action-adventure game, consider this your spoiler warning. I’m going to talk about what happened to Joel.
When you start The Last of Us Part II, you begin playing an older Joel, five years after the events of the first game. There’s a brief gameplay sequence introducing you to the characters and world and mechanics before a four-year time skip puts you in control of Ellie Williams, one of the original game’s two primary protagonists. Eventually, you play as the second protagonist, muscle mommy Abigail “Abby” Anderson, who tracks down and bludgeons Joel to death with a wedge (a type of golf club) in front of Ellie. It’s a fucked-up scene that puts in motion “the cycle of violence” game director Neil Druckmann has used to describe TLOU Part II’s story in the past. So, if Pedro Pascal is done with his parts in the HBO adaptation of the game, and we know that the show has found its Abby, well…two plus two equals four, doesn’t it?
Richtman told Kotaku over X/Twitter DMs that filming on the show is scheduled to conclude in August, with a premier slated for sometime between March and April 2025.
The Last of Us series (nearly) completed its casting just before shooting began, bringing in Dora the Explore’s Isabela Merced to play Dina and Beef’s Young Mazino to portray Jesse, two of Ellie’s besties in the game. Abby’s friend circle has also been filled out, with Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Ariela Barer, and Spencer Lord playing Manny, Nora, Mel, and Owen, respectively. The one casting announcement we’re still waiting for is Lev, Abby’s deuteragonist.
