These 26 “The Last Of Us” Behind-The-Scenes Facts Will Give You The Strength To Keep Going While We Wait For Season 2
The Season 1 finale of The Last of Us left us all deeply in our feelings.
And now we’re left with a Joel and Ellie-sized hole not just in our Sunday evening television schedule, but in our hearts.
So, to help ease the pain, here are 26 behind-the-scenes facts to keep you afloat.
*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD*
1. While filming the joke book scenes, Bella Ramsey turned to on-set inside jokes to make Pedro Pascal laugh.
2. The stars of the show were told not to play the game that inspired the show prior to filming.
3. On-set temperatures were so frigid while filming Episode 8 that Bella Ramsey could barely speak.
4. The original voice and motion capture actor who portrayed Joel in the video game was in an episode of the show.
5. And Ellie’s voice and motion capture actor, Ashley Johnson, showed up in the show’s Season 1 finale.
6. Bella Ramsey apparently squatted Pedro Pascal while on set.
7. Pedro Pascal forgot he was cast as Joel due to the effects of a sleep aid.
8. Bella Ramsey got a real black eye during filming.
9. During the reunion scene between Joel and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Pedro Pascal cried during every single take, even when he wasn’t on camera.
10. Pedro Pascal’s favorite scenes to film were of him and Bella Ramsey riding the horse.
11. Storm Reid inspired Bella Ramsey to enroll in university.
12. Mahershala Ali was apparently in the running to play Joel.
13. Merle Dandridge, the actor who played Marlene in the video game, got the rare opportunity to also portray the character in the live-action adaptation.
14. Bella Ramsey got so used to speaking with an American accent that it was hard for them to switch back.
15. Troy Baker gave his blessing to Pedro Pascal taking over the role.
16. Pedro Pascal played songs from Olivia Newton-John’s Xanadu on set to keep everyone in good spirits.
17. The huge fight scene in Episode 5 was done using practical effects, and was shot over the course of three weeks.
18. The Bloater, which wasn’t CGI either, and the actor inside the suit is, well… ?
19. The decision to cut one of Joel’s most iconic lines from the video game was actually Pedro Pascal’s decision.
Speaking with Radio Times, Joel’s original voice actor Troy Baker revealed that Joel’s iconic line during the fight between him and Ellie in Episode 6 was cut at the hands of Pedro Pascal. In the game, Joel warns Ellie, “You are treading on some mighty thin ice here,” but according to Baker, Pascal didn’t think it fit the show. “Pedro was like, ‘It just doesn’t feel right for me to say that. It feels forced.’ The confidence to be able to say that and the confidence on [the creators’ part to change it]. That’s what I love.”
20. Pedro Pascal was intimidated by the role because the video game series is so beloved.
“It became very, very clear very quickly how much people love the game,” Pascal told Entertainment Tonight. “That was scary. … People’s relationship to [playing the game] is a deep one, and we want to expand on that, meet expectations, surpass expectations…and also honor what was originally there. And um, we’re exhausted.”
21. The actors portraying the infected had to go through a movement bootcamp to learn how to be extra creepy.
In a behind-the-scenes featurette from HBO, we learned that before the scene in Episode 5 where the infected coming pouring up from out of the ground, they took part in a movement bootcamp lead by Terry Notary who worked on Planet of the Apes. And talking about the benefit of working with actors vs. CGI models, he said, “When you have a human being playing these characters, you really get the subtleties that are so hard for animators. It takes them forever to recreate it.”
22. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were cracking each other up on set so much they delayed shooting.
“We would show up for each other and balance out one another’s anxiety by laughter,” Pascal shared with Sony. “Very contagious, inappropriate, shoot-delaying laughter, that [Bella] wants to play innocent on, and then I was always blamed for.” The interview devolves into the two of them fighting back and forth about who was making the other laugh the most before they ultimately blame Anna Torv who played Tess in the first two episodes. “We had to kill Tess just to make it through the days without laughing,” joked the show’s co-creator Craig Mazin.
23. Gabriel Luna couldn’t help but take some custom-made costume pieces from set.
“Well, a few things fell off the costume truck and somehow ended up in my bag,” Luna joked to HBO Max. “One of which being a beautiful belt buckle that was made by an 85-year-old craftsman there in Calgary, Alberta.” He also took a pair of custom-made boots made specifically for him by the Alberta Boot Company
24. Pedro Pascal’s now-iconic valley girl voice on SNL was inspired by The Last of Us.
Pedro told Seth Meyers that the cast and crew would use this voice on set in between takes, and when the SNL writers asked him if he had any ideas for sketches, he couldn’t resist. “[Speaking this way is] very contagious. It will not stop. It spread like a fungus amongst the set.”
25. The Last of Us was almost an animated series instead.
Jeffrey Pierce told the Direct that, “There have been a couple of different iterations over time. There was a movie at one point. There was a motion-capture cinematic animated series at one point.” I’m sure any version would be amazing, but I’m sure glad we got the one we did!
26. And finally, there’s at least two more seasons on the way!
The show was renewed for a second season back in January, but recently, the game and show’s creator Neil Druckmann confirmed to GQ the adaptation of The Last of Us Part II will be “more than one season.” And it appears there might be some surprises in store for us in the seasons to come. “Some of the stuff I’m most excited for [in Part 2] are the changes we’ve discussed and seeing the story come to life again in this other version. And I think it’s exciting because it leans into those feelings you had from the game, really heavily, in a new way.”