The Last Of Us season 2 may change Joel's fate, showrunner hints

Spoiler warning: this article contains a big spoiler for the opening hours of The Last of Us Part II. Let’s face it, you probably already know exactly what it is, but if not, feel free to scroll away now.

As everyone knows at this point, season two of The Last of Us is on the way, but it sounds like it could make some massive changes to the source material.

The first season of The Last of Us wasn’t afraid to branch out from the source material where appropriate - we got an entire, beautiful episode dedicated to Bill and Frank’s backstory which was only hinted at in the first game, and the show’s story in general focused a lot more on the people at the heart of The Last of Us, rather than the infected enemies roaming the world. However, the plot was ultimately the same as the game, and this might not be the case for season two. In a recent interview with Esquire, showrunner Craig Mazin hinted that one major change could be made right from the start of the second season, which would change the entire story’s trajectory.

Before we get into it, take a look at this comparison of Ellie in the HBO show and Ellie in The Last of Us Part I below.

Good news for Pedro Pascal fans - Joel might not be killed in the TV adaptation. Mazin said: “This should be fairly obvious to anyone by now, but I don’t fear killing characters. But the important thing to note is that neither Neil [Druckmann] nor I feel constrained by the source material.”

Interesting. As much as I’d love to see Pascal get more screen time, admittedly, I have no idea how keeping Joel alive would actually work. His death is what sets the events of Part II rolling, so someone else would need to be killed in his stead, and no one else would really have the same impact on Ellie.

Pascal himself is of the same mindset: “It wouldn’t make sense to follow the first game so faithfully only to stray severely from the path,” he told Esquire.

Season two is still a long way away, so it’ll be a while before we know exactly what direction the showrunners are taking the story. Watch this space.