Even before The Last of Us became one of HBO’s biggest hits in recent memory, fans of the source material all wondered the same thing: would a potential second season follow the plot of the game? It seems like an obvious question with an obvious answer… unless you know the story’s spoiler-y, inciting event. Once you do, things get much less clear—and the show’s star claims it’s still unclear.
Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel on The Last of Us, is currently at the Sundance Film Festival with a new movie called Freaky Tales. There, he was asked by Deadline—in the most spoiler-free way possible—whether or not the show’s second season will follow the game. Here’s the quote, followed by the clip.
“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,” Pascal told the trade. “But I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anybody, and the truth is, I don’t actually have all of the information, as of yet.”
Pascal is clearly leaving the door open here for a reinterpretation of the events of The Last of Us Part 2, while also suggesting he doesn’t know what happens in season two. We don’t think that second part is true though, and to explain we’ll have to reveal that spoiler.
In the game, The Last of Us Part 2, the bulk of the story revolves around the fact that Pascal’s character, Joel, is killed. It happens very early on in the story. He’s killed by a group, led by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever will play her in season two), and then Ellie (Bella Ramsey) sets off to find Abby and get revenge.
A fair amount of time passes between the games so there’s certainly a chance showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann could have expanded that a bit, pushing Joel’s death until later in the season. They could’ve also changed it so someone else is killed by Abby, to not lose their world-famous star of the show.
Which is what we’re ultimately getting at. Pascal clearly has to be lying if he’s saying he doesn’t know if his character dies or not. Season two will start filming sooner rather than later so while maybe he hasn’t seen every script, those scripts exist and he knows if he has to be on set for three weeks or three months.
It’s also been a topic of discussion for a long time. Soon after the first season ended, Pascal and Ramsey did an interview where they suggested the show was going to follow the second game’s story. In the same interview though, Mazin left that question a bit more open-ended. “This should be fairly obvious to anyone by now, but I don’t fear killing characters,” Mazin said. “But the important thing to note is that neither Neil nor I feel constrained by the source material.”
So what’s going to happen? We don’t know and won’t find out for a while. The Last of Us season two won’t debut until next year.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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