Pedro Pascal Discusses THE LAST OF US Adaptation and Compares it to THE MANDALORIAN
Pedro Pascal is currently involved with some pretty big high-profile projects like Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian and HBO Max’s adaptation of the hit video game The Last of Us. Fans have been loving The Mandalorian and there’s a lot of excitement surrounding The Last of Us. In a recent interview with Pascal, he talked about the show and in the process, comparing it to The Mandalorian and how it’s similar to how the source material is being adapted. The actor told GQ:
"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 [to include] things that you wouldn't necessarily expect. 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. It's similar to the way Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni treat The Mandalorian, in how [Mazin and Druckmann] are treating The Last of Us – it's in good hands because they love it so much. Well, clearly Neil created the video game, but Craig loves it so much. So it really is made for the people that love it. And there's some very intense storytelling for people who might be less familiar."
Those comments are sure to make fans happy and give them a little confidence that The Last of Us series might actually turn out to be really good!
Craig Mazin, the creator of HBO’s acclaimed limited series Chernobyl, wrote the series and is also executive producing with Neil Druckmann, who is the writer and creative director of the game. The series stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Anna Torv, TLOU voice actress Merle Dandrige, Nick Offerman, Storm Reid, Nico Parker, Gabriel Luna, Jeffrey Pierce and Murray Bartlett.
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed by a deadly virus. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone to the Fireflies, a cure-searching organization. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Luna plays Tommy, Joel’s younger brother, “a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world.” Dandridge is set to take on the role of Marlene in the series, the head of the Fireflies, “a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime.” Offerman will take on the role of the character Bill and star alongside Murray Bartlett as Frank, two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town.
HBO is “aiming for a serious dramatic tone for the adaptation.” The rest of the production team includes Carolynn Strauss (Chernobyl) and Carter Swan along with Evan Wells of Naughty Dog and Asad Qizilbash from PlayStation Productions.