HBO Max’s ‘The Last of Us’ Footage Has Fans Already Praising Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller
HBO has finally shared the first official video footage for its TV adaptation of The Last of Us. The clip showed less than 30 seconds of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in action, but it was enough to get many fans excited for the upcoming release. Some viewers have taken to social media to praise Pascal, in particular, complimenting how well he has captured the essence of his character, Joel Miller. Check out the clip below and see what fans have to say.
HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ adapts the hit PlayStation game
Based on Naughty Dog’s PlayStation video game series, the HBO original series The Last of Us is set 20 years into an apocalypse caused by a deadly fungus. Pascal’s Joel is tasked with smuggling Ramsey’s Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, across the U.S. Their dangerous journey brings Joel and Ellie together as they depend on each other to survive.
Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann and HBO’s Craig Mazin created the adaptation. Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman, Merle Dandridge, Anna Torv, Murray Bartlett, Storm Reid, and Jeffrey Pierce also star.
As Druckmann told IGN last year, season 1 will focus on adapting the first game in the series. It will remain as faithful as possible to the game, but sometimes will “deviate greatly to much better effect because we are dealing with a different medium,” he said.
Many ‘The Last of Us’ fans think Pedro Pascal is a perfect Joel Miller in new footage from HBO Max
The footage came as part of a larger video previewing content arriving on HBO Max in 2023. Some of the scenes included Joel and Ellie crossing an icy bridge, Joel teaching Ellie how to use a gun, and Joel carrying Ellie in his arms as he runs from danger. Meanwhile, Ellie’s voiceover says, “Everybody I had cared for has either died or left me.”
“You have no idea what loss is,” Joel responds.
The clip also includes a shot of Offerman’s character and a shot of fungus growing on a wall.
On Twitter, many fans have gushed over Pascal’s spot-on portrayal of Joel.
“It’s actually scary how perfectly Pedro Pascal got Troy Baker’s Joel Miller voice,” one user said, adding a clip of that same “loss” scene from the game to compare.
“Nothing can prepare us for how much Pedro Pascal is going to blow us all away as Joel Miller,” another person added.
Meanwhile, another fan said they managed to become “obsessed with Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller” after only 10 seconds.
Amidst all the hype for the clip, Druckmann chimed in to share a reminder that this has barely scratched the surface of what’s to come.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he tweeted.
Pedro Pascal says the TV show has ‘creative’ ways of ‘honoring’ the game
Pascal himself is thrilled to be a part of this project, as he’s shared many times throughout its development. Speaking to GQ UK last year, The Mandalorian star praised HBO’s ability to “honor” The Last of Us video games.
“There’s a very, very creative way of honoring what’s important and also preserving what is iconic to the experience of the video game, and also things that you wouldn’t necessarily expect,” Pascal shared. “And then directions that you would expect it to go, and it might not … they’re doing some really smart things, is all I can say.”
The Last of Us is set to premiere on HBO sometime in 2023. Stay tuned to Showbiz Cheat Sheet for more updates.
