The Last of Us boss teases Joel’s fate in season 2, doesn’t feel “constrained” by the game

HBO’s first big hit of the year — The Last of Us — wrapped up its season 1 finale last month, and fans are already looking ahead to the second season. Though we don’t expect it to come out anytime soon, we have an idea of what’ll go down. We won’t get into explicit spoilers for The Last of Us Part II video game here, but just know you can expect a turning point for Joel, played by Pedro Pascal.

Or at least, we think that’ll be the case. If you’ve played the second game or have just heard spoilers about what happens to Joel, you know there will likely be a lot of tears shed whenever that episode comes out. But in a recent cover story interview with Pascal, Esquire got a quote from The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin that has us questioning a few things.

Fans of Pascal have no doubt seen the spread of photographs (and videos!) for the Esquire feature; he looks so good! But have you read the story? The interviewer includes thoughts from Pascal’s Last of Us costar Bella Ramsey and the show’s co-creator about Joel’s fate that makes it kind of, sort of, maybe sound like there’s a chance it’ll be changed for the game. To be honest, I hadn’t even thought that might be an option.

The Last of Us cast and crew discuss Joel’s fate in season 2

Ramsey notes in the feature that if Joel’s fate from the game “does take place in the show,” she doesn’t know if she’s I’m emotionally ready for it,” Mazin teases:

"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."

As for Pascal’s opinion on the whole thing, he also can’t confirm or deny what’ll happen to Joel in The Last of Us season 2, though he does share: “It wouldn’t make sense to follow the first game so faithfully only to stray severely from the path.”

Pascal’s right; it doesn’t seem likely that The Last of Us season 2 will actually stray that far from the game when it comes to Joel’s fate, but it’s interesting to at least think about what a second season could look like without that pivotal moment happening. It would kind of make the season pointless, right? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

There’s no word on when The Last of Us season 2 will hit HBO, but we’re hoping they start filming sometime this year. Fingers crossed!

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