"Makes me sad": Pedro Pascal makes his feelings known about Joel's tragic fate in The Last of Us Season 2

Disclaimer: Major spoilers ahead. Reader's discretion advised.

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 2, titled Through The Valley, dropped on Max on Sunday, April 20, 2025. This episode showcased the death of a major character. This was an absolute shocker for those who managed to keep themselves away from the spoilers via the source material, The Last of Us Part II (the video game).

Pedro Pascal's character in The Last of Us, Joel Miller, is dead. Shocking, right? Well, this was bound to happen, as the creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann were determined to follow the core story of the video game, which included Joel's death at the hands of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Joel's death was brutal and nerve-wracking—she trapped and shot him in the leg, hit him with a golf club, and punched him to death—all this in front of his 'adoptive' daughter Ellie! In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pedro Pascal opened up about how he dealt with his character Joel's brutal death. He said,

"I realize this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over. I know that I'm forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances, but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on The Last of Us. And no, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad."

Previously, in The Last of Us Season 2, the viewers saw Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel seek refuge in the protected and fortified town of Jackson in Wyoming after they escaped from the Fireflies. For the unversed, Joel killed the Fireflies group members (including Abby's father) when they were trying to perform a life-threatening operation on Ellie to find a cure for the cordyceps infection. Thus, as revenge, Abby decided to hunt down, torture, and finally kill Joel.

Pedro Pascal and the showrunners on filming Joel's death scene in The Last of Us Season 2

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Pedro Pascal shared some tidbits on the day they shot Joel Miller's death scene in The Last of Us Season 2. Pascal revealed that they were shooting in Kamloops, Canada, and that he spent a rather relaxing time before the shot. Even though he knew Joel's fate, he revealed how tough it was to say goodbye to his character and the rest of the cast and crew.

Pascal described how he felt after he had the end scene makeup and prosthetics done: injured, swollen eyes, bruises, and blood stains. He told EW,

"This kind of shock and heartbreak..it was weird to be on the receiving end of that..It's like the extreme version of, 'is there something on my face? I really could see this sort of grief take over everyone's look in their eyes."

Joel Miller's death in Episode 2 happened quite early in the series, if not unexpectedly. According to show creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, this isn't the last time the viewers will be seeing Joel on the series. Even though Joel is dead, he will appear in the memories of his loved ones, especially Ellie.

In an interview with the NY Post, Craig Mazin felt that Joel's death was similar to that of Ned Stark's death. He said,

"If you look at ‘Game of Thrones,’ like everybody, I was so shocked when Ned Stark got his head chopped off. I couldn’t believe it. That incident never goes away. So (Ned Stark's) character is there, over everything from the first season to the final moments. It changes everyone and people keep coming back to the story over and over"

Since Joel and Ellie's relationship was almost unbreakable, and after all the struggles they faced together, Ellie is bound to remember instances from the past that involved Joel. Joel's death thus plays a crucial and pivotal role in shaping Ellie's character arc.

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To know how Ellie will deal with Joel's death and take revenge on Abby, keep watching The Last of Us Season 2 every Sunday at 9 pm ET only on Max.

Also read: How will The Last of Us end? Details from the games revealed

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