The Last of Us Season 2 Star Confirms What We All Suspected About Joel's Death

The Last of Us Season 2 star Gabriel Luna confirmed fan suspicions about Joel's death in the hit HBO series. Fans of the Last of Us games knew Pedro Pascal's Joel getting killed off was coming at some point in the TV show's second season; it was just a matter of how it would happen. Turns out it was almost shot-for-shot to the games, with a few semantic changes.

Gabriel Luna, the actor behind The Last of Us Season 2's Tommy, revealed one key detail about Joel's death that was changed between The Last of Us Part II video and the HBO TV show. As many fans had assumed, Luna revealed in the HBO series Joel dies never having told Tommy his secret about what truly happened the day he saved Ellie from the Fireflies. 

Speaking on The Today Show, The Last of Us Season 2 star disclosed, "Joel kept that [secret] with him 'til his death," never telling Tommy as he did in the games:

"And that’s what’s tragic about it, because the fact that Joel kept that with him ‘til his death, and that Ellie is the only one on Earth to live with that is probably why most of these decisions end up being made."

"We make choices, and we pay the price," Luna added, claiming that is the thesis of the entire show:

"We make choices, and we pay the price. That’s just it. That’s just the whole nature of the whole story."

Fans will remember that to close out last season, Pascal's grizzled post-apocalyptic survivor went on a murder spree to quote/unquote save Ellie from the Fireflies. 

After a cross-country journey to bring the young girl (played by Bella Ramsey) to the rebel group in hopes of using her immunity to find a cure, it was revealed that the operation they were going to perform on her would have likely meant death. 

So, without consulting his teenage companion, he broke into the operating room, grabbed her, and killed everyone who crossed his path on the way out. Joel then lied to Ellie about what happened at the Salt Lake City hospital, telling her they found nothing and had abandoned all hope for a cure. 

In the series, fans had assumed, given Tommy's reaction to Joel's death (and Ellie's new pursuit for revenge), that Joel had never told his younger brother about what actually went down before they ended up in Jackson, unlike he does in the games. 

The Last of Us Season 2 continues the acclaimed story of the HBO show's first season of a pair of survivors, Joel and Ellie (played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey), living in a fungi-infected post-apocalypse.

Based on the PlayStation games of the same name, Season 2 sees choices made in the first season come back to bite Joel as a new survivor, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), comes looking for revenge. 

How Different Was Tommy and Joel's The Last of Us Story in Season 2?

Fans of The Last of Us Part II video game will know just how different the events between Tommy and Joel leading up to Joel's eventual death are in the HBO TV show. 

In the game, the opening scene is Joel and Tommy discussing what happened five years before the game kicks off, as Joel describes what he did to "save" Ellie. Tommy is shocked at first, but knowing what Ellie represents to his older brother, he reluctantly accepts it. 

This conversation in the show (at least as far as fans know) never happened, meaning Tommy never fully understood the lengths that Joel went to to ensure Ellie remained a part of his life. 

This completely changes the context of Tommy's reaction to Joel's shocking death. In the show, Tommy, of course, mourns his older brother, but he does not fully understand what it means, thinking Joel was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

In the game, Tommy knows Joel's secret and is present for Abby's ambushing and killing of the series mainstay. Tommy knows 100% why Ellie is as impassioned as she is when she sets out for Seattle on her revenge tour in the Pacific Northwest. 

This is different in the HBO take on the events, where Tommy understands that Ellie wants revenge but still has some guard up, knowing he needs to protect her.

Luna talked about this in his Today Show interview, saying, "She’s mine now. She’s my responsibility:"

"She’s mine now. She’s my responsibility The weight of of all that, the weight of the burden that she’s taken on, her pursuit of 'justice' and revenge is one that she doesn’t go on alone. I can’t let her."

While game Tommy is like, "Go. Do what you need to," TV show Tommy understands but is still trying to preserve Ellie's innocence when she comes to him asking to head for Seattle. 

This could set up a different reason for Luna's character coming back into the story as he does later in The Last of Us Part II. Without knowing what happened between Ellie and Joel, Tommy chasing after her to Seattle in the TV show will be entirely based on saving the teenage survivor from herself rather than hoping to help her enact her revenge. 

That may all change, though, as upon meeting Ellie and Dina in the Emerald City, she could be the one to break the news to her adopted uncle, finally understanding that the father-daughter pair never getting to reconcile fully is fuelling Ellie's conquest to take down Abby.