Pedro Pascal has addressed the toxic section of The Last of Us fandom that has criticised the TV series’ for its diverse cast, emphasising that it’s ‘honouring the original source material’.
The new post-apocalyptic series, which is based on the widely-celebrated video game franchise of the same name, follows a man named Joel (Pedro) who’s tasked with smuggling a young girl called Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the US.
While a pandemic has ravaged humankind, infecting scores of people with a mutated fungus, Ellie is immune to the virus and therefore could be the key to a cure.
Although the video games have been praised for their diversity and representation, some vitriolic fans have criticised the TV show over the choice of some actors in the cast, such as Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah.
While Sarah is depicted as being white in the game, Nico, who is the daughter of actor Thandiwe Newton, is mixed race.
When asked how he would respond to said trolls, Pedro, 47, shrugged and told Yahoo Entertainment: ‘Sorry. What is it about it, that characters aren’t cast exactly as they want them to be cast? You can’t make everybody happy.’
Paying homage to the original video game, The Mandalorian and Game of Thrones actor added: ‘I think that the game is very, very innovative in its inclusiveness. So really, it’s a way of honouring the original source material, the way that [the TV series’ creators] Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] have gone about casting and telling this story.’
Bella, 19, chimed in to add: ‘Yeah, 100%.’
Ahead of The Last of Us coming out, Nico, 18, admitted that she was feeling the pressure over her role in the globally-anticipated drama.
‘Craig and Neil and everyone were incredibly good at keeping the set away from that mounting pressure,’ she told Deadline.
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‘It’s more like the internal, “Oh my God, am I doing justice to this game? Am I doing justice to this character?” But I think it was just trying to separate the two.’
The Dumbo actor added: ‘The show is one thing, the game is the other and to keep the two separate was the main aim, but it was definitely incredibly stressful.’
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The Last of Us premieres on Monday January 16 on Sky Atlantic and NOW.
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