Pedro Pascal initially hesitated to take on the role of Joel in The Last of Us

A desolated man who has lost everything, an orphaned child who needs to be delivered to a location, and the two end up forming an unbreakable bond – Pedro Pascal has been ruling 2023 with this exact same storyline. However, Pascal once hesitated to play that role in one of them; HBO’s new big hit The Last of Us. And he recently explained why it took him a while to accept it.

Why did Pedro Pascal hesitate to take on the role of Joel in The Last of Us?

On his recent visit to Entertainment Tonight, Pascal and Bella took on several questions, and in one of them, The Mandalorian star admitted he was initially scared to take the role. He said, “It became very, very clear very quickly how much people loved the game and the experience of playing the game. That was scary because you can get really into a book. You can get really into a series. And this is the next level of getting into an immersive experience of playing these characters. “

“So people’s relationship to that experience is a deep one, and we want to kind of expand on that, meet expectations, surpass expectations, learn something new, show something new, and also honour what is originally there. And we’re exhausted.”

What does Pedro Pascal think about Joel saving Ellie?

Pascal told Empire Magazin, “He’s just riding this unconscious wave of delusion mixed with gratitude. Even though it comes with such a big lie, it doesn’t feel like a lie in his heart, because he has her back and they’re going home. It’s the first time he’s able to share a memory that makes him happy, because he’s with the person that makes him the happiest – his daughter, Ellie. Ellie can smell the sense of what’s in his unconscious, and something’s off. It isn’t until he’s under her lens of truth that it all comes tumbling down. And he has to lie to keep it going.”

What can we expect from The Last of Us Season 2?

Showrunner Craig Mazin teased the reporters about what’s to come in Season 2, “Sometimes it will be different radically and sometimes it will be barely different at all, but it’s going to be different and it will be its own thing. It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make. We are making it with Bella.”

Read next: Troy Baker explains why Pedro Pascal got rid of one of Joel’s most iconic lines