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Pedro Pascal admits he is in "active denial" over the big 'The Last of Us' twist

By Sophia Soto | Last updated Apr 22, 2025 5:30 PM ET

Let's be honest, after Sunday's brutal episode of HBO's The Last of Us, titled "Through the Valley," we're all in denial. However, it turns out someone else is still in denial as well: Pedro Pascal.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he confessed, "I'm in active denial. 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."

While the actor isn't fully gone from the show and we will see him in some capacity in the future, it will never be the same because Joel Miller is officially dead. On set, no one even wanted to mention his death, simply referring to the moment as "that day," "the event," "the Joel and Abby moment," and "the scene."

"I think it was a hushed thing, like scary words that no one wants to utter," Bella Ramsey, who stars as Ellie, explained. "It feels like too big of a thing to just speak about it."

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Staying true to the source material meant that Pascal knew this day was coming when he took the role. "It was just a matter of how and when," he shared, but later added, "I get killed a lot. I like to die."

His death was due to a decision in the season one finale when he killed an unarmed doctor and anyone else who got in his way to save Ellie's life. Five years later, that surgeon's daughter, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), is here for revenge.

"I've never experienced anything like I did that day where I stepped onto set in full makeup and then killed the vibe completely as soon as anyone set their eyes on me," the actor explained. "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."

"I've never cried reading a piece of writing before, but I had such a gastral reaction to it," Ramsey commented. "It's almost like we've played that dynamic, me and Pedro, for a year, and it feels like father-daughter in some way. I think my reaction to that being over was quite a gradual feeling. Also knowing that that would be the end of Pedro and us two working together in this capacity."

New episodes of The Last of Us premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.

Sophia Soto

Sophia Soto is a writer and interviewer with a passion for all things entertainment. She is a Senior Reporter at The Nerds of Color and contributes to Yardbarker, Screensphere, Den of Geek, What to Watch, Nerdtropolis, and Temple of Geek. You can see her past work on Remezcla, Young Hollywood, Looper, Paste Magazine, Primetimer, Soundsphere, and Starry Constellation Magazine

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