Pedro Pascal Recalls How His ‘The Last of Us’ Role Turned His Nephews Into “Demons”

Video game adaptations have had a bad reputation. Previously, many mainstream gaming titles such as Street Fighter, World of Warcraft, and Resident Evil, tried to emulate the gaming spectacles on the big screen but weren’t quite successful. However, HBO Max’s recent hit series, The Last of Us, has accomplished the impossible. 

Based on the Naughty Dog’s Magnum opus gaming series with the same name, The Last of Us has been breaking records while garnering critical praise from all over the board. But all this may not have been possible if Pedro Pascal’s nephews didn’t turn into “demons” and made him take the role. 

Pedro Pascal’s nephews made “The Last of Us” possible with him as Joel

Gaming is one of the most mainstream media in the world. However, the dominant demographic for the genre is mostly young adults. Most of the big game creators are very aware of this fact and craft their products in a manner so they can target this particular audience. 

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One of the main leads of the show, Pedro Pascal, who played the role of Joel, recently shared that his young adult nephews were the main reason why he had no choice but to accept the offer from HBO. Although he was very excited about the job from the beginning, his nephew’s enthusiasm gave him more reasons to pursue it. 

In a recent interview, Pascal shared that while talking with Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin about the job, he called his sister who was in her car, dropping her sons (Pedro’s nephews) to the school. He was on the speaker when he mentioned the job is based on a game called the Last of Us, which drove his nephews crazy. 

“I called my sister to tell her about this job that I want badly. She was in the car driving my nephews to school. And I was on speaker and I didn’t know they were in the car. I was like, having a conversation about this amazing job that is based on a video game and it is called, The La-,” Pedro didn’t have to mention the full name of the game before they could recognize it. 

“Then Bruno and Pedro were like ‘The Last of Us?’ You have to get this job! Mommy, pull over,” said Pedro in a deep voice for dramatic effects. Other cast and crew teased a little saying “they have such deep voices.” Pedro played back a little by saying, “Yeah they turned into demons.” 

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