Source: Rich Fury / Getty
Pedro Pascal just landed another new gig to shine in. Deadline is exclusively reporting that Pascal will take on the lead role in HBO’s forthcoming adaption of the critically acclaimed PlayStation game, The Last of Us, by playing Joel.
The news of Pascal’s casting comes on the heels of his The Mandalorian co-star Gina Carano got canned for being a bigot on social media. Pascal is no stranger to the cable network gaining popularity for his role as Oberyn Martell in the hit show Game of Thrones.
The Last of Us HBO series will be directly based on the PlayStation exclusive game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog studios. The world is ravaged by a very severe brain infection that originates from a mystery fungus. The game opens up with Joel (Pascal), a single dad on a faithful night when everything went left and witnessing the death of his 12-year-old daughter Sam while trying to escape the pandemonium caused by the sudden outbreak.
Like the game, the show will pick up exactly 20-years-later after “outbreak day” and will follow Joel, who is now a hardened survivor and takes on the job as a smuggler in a post-apocalyptic America but is still traumatized by his daughter’s death. He will eventually meet a 14-year-old Ellie, played by Game of Throne’s Bella Ramsey, who is tasked with smuggling to a survivor group called the Fireflies across the dangerous land full of bandits as well as the “infected.”
Along the way, Joel grows attached to Ellie and learns that he is smuggling some very precious cargo.
Since the game’s release, fans have been screaming for The Last of Us to be turned into a game, being that its gripping story should be a slam dunk to turn into a film. But, based on the somewhat shaky history of turning games into movies, there was no guarantee that it will be done correctly.
Fans were relieved to hear that HBO turning the game into an original series and that Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and co-president of Naughty Dog Neil Druckman were directly involved. The addition of Pedro Pascal is the chef’s kiss. We can’t wait to see The Last of Us on HBO. Everyone else is clearly excited to see Pascal take on the role of a single dad…again.
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Photo: Rich Fury / Getty
