The Last of Us TV show actor has been gifted a PS5 from Neil Druckmann to help with "research"

The Last of Us 2
(Image credit: Sony)

A The Last of Us TV show actor has been gifted a PS5 to replay the games and help further his research into the role. 

Gabriel Luna, who will be taking on the role of Joel’s brother Tommy in the series, took to Instagram to share his excitement of receiving a PS5 from none other than The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann, with the help of Sony of course. 

The actor shared a photo of himself sitting next to the console smiling with the caption: "A huge THANK YOU to @Playstation and the mastermind @druckmann for gifting me the necessary equipment to further my research. I’m going to replay 1 and 2 in the mode where if you get whacked you have to go back to the start” 

The mode that Luna is referring to in his post is the Permadeath mode found in the Grounded difficulty of The Last of Us 2 which puts players through the wringer by giving them no second chances. This almost realistic mode sends players back to the start of the game, no matter how far through the game you are, after one death. Which if these The Last of Us 2 Permadeath fails are anything to go by, can be extremely frustrating to experience.

Gabriel Luna, along with other members of the cast, seem to be taking their new roles on the show in their stride as they continue to share small insights into the making of The Last of Us TV show on their social media accounts. We also got our first proper glimpse at what the show will look like recently when fans shared some The Last of Us TV show set photos which were taken as the cast and crew filmed in Canada. 

News about this show is never in short supply either, as it was also recently announced that Anna Torv will also be joining the series as Joel’s right-hand woman Tess. Torv will be joining the likes of Gabriel Luna as Tommy, The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and more.

If you need more convincing that this series is in the right hands, the original actor who played Tommy in the games - who will also play a different role in the TV show - Jeffrey Pierce recently stated that the scripts for the show are “breathtaking” and some of the best he’s ever seen in terms of detail. 

Just can’t wait for Joel and Ellie to grace your TV screens? Take a look at this fan-made The Last of Us short film in the meantime. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.