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The starring role in HBO’s adaptation of The Last Of Us almost went to Blade star Mahershala Ali, it has been revealed.
Pedro Pascal stars in the hit post-apocalypse drama as Joel alongside Bella Ramsey as Ellie.
Jeffrey Pierce (who voices Joel’s little brother Tommy in the original PlayStation game) revealed the casting decision during a recent interview with The Direct.
While speaking about reprising his role as Tommy, Pierce said “I think initially they had talked to Mahershala Ali about playing Joel, which is an obvious cue that I’m not gonna play Tommy.”
“And when they cast Pedro, I knew that it was certainly not going to happen [because] I’m older than Pedro Pascal. I was not harbouring any illusions about that, for sure.”
He went on to say that there were a couple of different ideas for the adaptation including a movie and a “motion-capture cinematic animated series”.
“With both of those are things, I thought, ‘I got a pretty good shot at being involved to some degree,” added Pierce.
Although Gabriel Luna ended up playing Tommy in the HBO series, Pierce did end up appearing in The Last Of Us. He played stern soldier Perry in episodes four and five alongside Melanie Lynskey’s tough leader Kathleen.
Speaking to Gameradar about the role, Pierce said: “I told [co-showrunner Neil Druckmann] early on, I was like, look, I’ll come and carry a spear and stand in the corner if there’s anything that I can do to help support telling the story of the game – you know, count me in.”
“He sent me the scripts and I read [Perry]. I was like, ‘Oh shit, this is gonna be so much fun’. Druckmann is one of the most lovely, talented, decent human beings going, and he is so good at his job that when he hands you writing, you just know how to make it fly. And this was one of those moments.”
The first episode of The Last Of Us attracted 4.7 million viewers in the US, making it HBO’s second biggest premiere in over a decade after House Of The Dragon. Viewership of the second episode jumped up to 5.7 million viewers, a 22 per cent increase. Season 2 was confirmed before the third episode aired.
According to Pascal, filming for the second season could begin this year.
