Pedro Pascal cast in HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation

By now, Pedro Pascal is no stranger to playing protector-turned-caring-father-figure roles. As the titular character in Disney+’s The Mandalorian, Pascal’s Din Djarin travels the galaxy protecting Grogu, the young Force-sensitive alien who looks a lot like a baby Yoda, from a dying Empire that wants to experiment on him.

In the Netflix original film We Can Be Heroes, directed by Robert Rodriguez (who also directed an episode of The Mandalorian), Pascal played retired superhero Marcus Moreno, who is called out of retirement to protect the world from an alien invasion, breaking a promise to his daughter Missy to do so.

And now, Deadline just announced that Pascal has been cast as Joel in HBO’s upcoming adaptation of the PlayStation-exclusive video game The Last of Us. The game was developed by Naughty Dog and written by Neil Druckmann, who will also serve as a writer and executive producer on the series with screenwriter Craig Mazin.

Pascal’s character is a hardened survivor of a catastrophic pandemic that wiped out modern civilization twenty years earlier. Joel is hired to complete a job: smuggling 14-year-old Ellie, a girl infected by the virus who may hold the secret to curing the disease, across the country. But similar to his character in The Mandalorian, Pascal’s character develops a father-like connection to Ellie that turns him into a fierce protector of the girl.

Pascal will continue his role on The Mandalorian, but given his limited role in the show (because his character spends all of his time behind a mask), fans of both Star Wars and The Last of Us game will be excited to see him in a lead role. He will be joined by a fellow Game of Thrones alumn, actress Bella Ramsey (who played Lyanna Mormont) as Ellie. Kantemir Balagov is set to direct the pilot episode. No news about when the show will be released has yet been announced.

Will you be watching HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us knowing that Pedro Pascal is the star? Let us know in the comments!