It wasn’t just The Last of Us viewers who were left sobbing by Joel Miller’s death on the Max series. In Touch breaks down what the cast members have said about Pedro Pascal‘s character getting killed off on season 2.
What Happened to Joel on ‘The Last of Us’?
On episode 2 of season 2 that aired on April 20, 2025, Joel’s character was brutally killed by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). She beat him with a golf club and put it through his throat as a final blow while his surrogate daughter, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), watched helplessly in horror.
Abby had hunted Joel down in revenge for him killing her father and other members of the Fireflies rebel group in the season 1 finale. However, Joel did it to save Ellie from being killed during an operation to find out why she was immune to a deadly pandemic.
While the death was familiar to fans of the video game, some who watched the Max series were shocked that Joel’s character died so early into The Last of Us‘ second season.
Bella Ramsey Cried Reading the Script for Joel’s Death Scene
Bella, who uses they/them pronouns, couldn’t even make it through reading the script that featured Joel’s death, as she knew it was the end of her journey with Pedro.
“I’ve never cried reading a piece of writing before, but I had such a gastral reaction to it,” they told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s almost like we’ve played that dynamic, me and Pedro, for a year, and it feels like father-daughter in some way.” Bella continued. “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.”
Bella added how Joel’s death made her the official star of The Last of Us, which caused her to feel an additional “weight.”
“It definitely felt heavier,” Bella told the publication about becoming the top name on the show’s daily call sheet. “I’ve felt the weight of the responsibility of it more, and not the responsibility of being the main character as much. It is more just the workload and being there literally every day. I did feel at times I was carrying the whole thing on my back, which obviously isn’t true. So many people are contributing. Within how dark the story gets this season, it definitely felt heavy, but I was supported the whole time.”
Katilyn Dever Found Joel’s Death Scene Hard to Watch
Kaitlyn’s character was the one who delivered the death blows to Joel, and she told EW the scene was “heartbreaking” for her as a fan.
“I watched you guys in season 1, and your relationship was so beautiful. And watching the end of you guys was really, really hard for me, as a viewer,” she told her costars Pedro and Bella during a group interview for the magazine’s cover shoot.
Pedro Pascal Felt His Costars ‘Shock’ About Seeing Joel’s Death Condition
The actor said the day he finally got the makeup done that showed his bloody and beaten face devastated his costars.
“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,” Pedro told Entertainment Weekly after the show aired on April 20, 2025.
“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,” he continued.
Pedro Pascal Tried Not to Think About Joel’s Death on ‘The Last of Us’
When it came to the finality of Joel getting killed off on season 2, Pedro told the outlet, “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,” he admitted. “And, no, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because it makes me sad.”
Why Did Joel’s Death Occur So Early in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2?
The show’s cocreators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann said that Joel’s death needed to take place sooner rather than later during season 2 for plot purposes.
“Ultimately, I think we needed just to settle back into the show. Because even in the game, there’s like an hour or something before you get to this moment. But we also knew it needed to be early enough, because this is the inciting incident for this story,” Neil explained to Variety on April 20, 2025. “So yes, we always pick every permutation, but the later it got in the season, it just felt we were kind of dragging our feet instead of just getting to the meat of what the story is about.”
Craig added about Joel’s death, “There’s a danger of tormenting people. It’s not what we want to do. If people know it’s coming, they will start to feel tormented. And people who don’t know it’s coming are going to find out it’s coming, because people are going to talk about the fact that it hasn’t shown up yet. Our instinct was to make sure that when we did it, that it felt natural in the story and was not some meta-function of us wanting to upset people.”
