The Last of Us season 2 is set to bring a whole bunch of iconic moments from the games to life, many of which are straight-up heartbreaking. Now, showrunner Craig Mazin has revealed one of his favorite adapted scenes – and showered praise on stars Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal for "making it their own".
At a press conference attended by GamesRadar+, Mazin was asked to highlight which sections he was most excited to bring to life in the sophomore chapter, to which he replied: "I mean, this is not a spoiler... In the trailer, you see Pedro and Bella both by the space capsule in the museum, and that scene is the first thing that [co-showrunner Neil Druckmann] ever showed me from Part 2. It's beautiful, and watching them kind of inhabit that and make it their own was pretty spectacular. Pretty spectacular, pretty good."
In The Last of Us Part 2, Ellie remembers the time Joel surprised her with a trip to the Wyoming Museum for her 16th birthday towards the end of her first day in Seattle. Players wander around the abandoned building, as the characters interact with various different attractions – Ellie takes it upon herself to place a Stockman-type hat she finds on all the dinosaur's heads.
Before long, they enter the science exhibit and talk about galactic exploration, before Ellie puts an astronaut helmet on and they climb inside an old space capsule. The act kicks off a cut scene, which sees Joel gift Ellie a tape of a lift-off and encourage her to close her eyes while she listens to it. The teen imagines what it would've been like to be one of the astronauts in the recording, a big grin spreading across her face, as the "sun" warms the helmet and the seat beneath looks to rumble and shake.
"I do okay?" Joel asks shyly when she comes back down to Earth. "Are you f***ing kidding me?" Ellie laughs. Talk about a sweet father/daughter moment.
"My mindset was grateful for being back, yet, at the same time, this experience, more than any other I've had, is hard for me to separate what the characters are going through and how it makes me feel in a way that isn't very healthy," Pascal said of filming during the same event. Best buckle up and get the tissues in!
The Last of Us season 2 premieres on HBO on April 13 and on Sky/NOW TV the following day. While we wait, check out our picks of the best shows on Max to watch right now.
