‘The Last of Us’ Star Pedro Pascal on the Season 2 Time Jump and Why It’s Hard to ‘Separate What the Characters Are Going Through’

variety.com:

Abigail Lee In the upcoming second season of “The Last of Us,” the brotherly bond between Pedro Pascal‘s Joel and Gabriel Luna‘s Tommy continues to be a significant relationship that grounds the characters amidst the surrounding apocalyptic horror.

During a press conference moderated by Variety‘s Jazz Tangcay in Los Angeles, the actor described the process of building that connection with Luna as an organic evolution from Season 1 to Season 2. “I think that there was just a very, very well placed arc for us,” Pascal said. “I started the season with [Luna].

We started Season 1 together on D-Day, right? And so there was a kind of bonding, initiation process, stepping into all of it.

We had our rehearsals and pre-production. We went river rafting.” Luna chimed in: “We did go river rafting, Bow River, which was really nice.” Pascal noted that in Season 1, the two characters were separated and reunited — “put in the snow together.” “I had you there when I feel like a lot of the flesh of my character started to display itself and got to be played,” Pascal said, addressing Luna. “So in Season 2, it felt like a real natural building of what we had established as characters and as scene partners.” Luna agreed with Pascal, noting, “I think when we first started, we had a really nice FaceTime call where I felt a very uncanny familiarity with you.” At the conference — which included creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and other Season 2 cast members like Isabela Merced and Young Mazino — Pascal discussed the arrival of the highly-anticipated new season.