The Last Of Us season 2 could change Joel's fate, hints Pedro Pascal

Last year, January saw HBO’s take on The Last of Us premiere, delivering us epic episodes week after week. This year, January has brought us season two casting news and the release of The Last of Us Part II Remastered. It’s proving to be quite a lucrative month for us fans.

In fact, The Last of Us Part II Remastered launches today. In our review, we awarded the game a perfect 10, writing, “As a full package, there’s nothing else you could possibly want from The Last of Us Part II Remastered. We all thought Part II was Naughty Dog’s magnum opus but Part II Remastered shows that there’s plenty more gas in the tank. If this is insight into what’s to come from the studio, I cannot wait to see what Naughty Dog is cooking up next.” Let’s direct our attention back to the HBO series though. Filming is due to get underway on season two in around two weeks and Pedro Pascal has teased what’s next for Joel in the show’s iteration of the story.

Take a look at our video review of The Last of Us Part II Remastered.

It goes without saying that I will be addressing Part II spoilers, and therefore potentially season two spoilers, so beware. Pedro was asked by Deadline if the show would deviate from Joel’s grisly fate in the games to which he replied, “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. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anybody and the truth is I don’t actually have all of the information.”

Let’s address the elephant in the room. There is no way Joel will avoid meeting his gruesome end. It’s this narrative beat that acts as the catalyst for this entire next chapter of the story. Abby has been cast (perfectly, may I add) so for those who were hoping for a The Last of Us AU, I simply cannot see it happening, nor do I want to.

That being said, Pedro does tease surprises - I suppose in the same way that it was a surprise to delve into the backstory of Bill and Frank. It could be that we explore more of Joel’s history via flashbacks, or see a few extra flashbacks to moments shared with Ellie. Either way, given how beautifully season one turned out, I have full trust in Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s adaptation of the source material.