Gabriel Luna played Tommy, the younger brother of Pedro Pascal’s character Joel, in the first season of the HBO TV series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us (read our review HERE), and he is expected to return – and have more to do – in The Last of Us season 2. Speaking with Variety, Luna said viewers can expect to see Tommy experience peaks and valleys, and undergo a de-evolution, over the course of The Last of Us season 2.
The first season of The Last of Us covered the events of the first video game in its entirety, so season 2 (and beyond) will be based on the sequel video game, The Last of Us Part II.
Variety reminds us that in season 1, Tommy “joined the Firefly rebels and lives in a safe, civilized settlement in Jackson, Wyoming”. He is “settled down, married to his wife Maria (Rutina Wesley), and has a child on the way.” Luna told Variety, “Because I played the games back to back, it’s one story in my mind. I prepped for it in that way. You never want to assume you’re gonna get a season 2, but considering it’s probably the biggest show in the world and they renewed us for season 2, it’s probably good I have a head start thinking about it. The idea of everything that happens in The Last of Us Part II was always ever-present in my mind. When working on the story we’ve told thus far, you gotta consider where you’re going with all the peaks and valleys. You don’t want play the end, but you certainly want to keep it in mind as you’re rolling forward and building the character. There’s a lot of peaks and there’s some deep, deep valleys. As much as Tommy is an evolved person, and he’s evolving, there’s certainly a de-evolution that happens in Part II. Which is probably the extent I can say about it.“
The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for.
Pedro Pascal plays Joel, who is “tormented by past trauma and failure. He must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity”. He is joined in the cast by Bella Ramsey as Ellie, “a 14-year-old orphan who has never known anything but a ravaged planet and who struggles to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging… as well as the newfound reality that she may be the key to saving the world”; Anna Torv as Tess, “a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world”; Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy, “a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world”; Merle Dandridge as Marlene, “the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime”; Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah; Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, “a rebel in a quarantine zone”; Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett as Bill and Frank, “two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town”; and Storm Reid as Ellie’s best friend Riley.
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who did the motion-capture performances for Joel and Ellie in the video game, are also in the cast of the show. Baker plays James, “a senior member of a group of settlers who must fight to keep their community alive in the face of increasingly brutal odds.” Baker also hosts a podcast that will serve as a companion to the TV series. Johnson’s character is Anna, “a pregnant woman, alone and on the run, who must give birth under the most terrifying of circumstances.”
Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann – who was also creative director on the video games – are directors on the series, as are Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole), Jasmila Zbanic (Quo vadis, Aida), Peter Hoar (Doctor Who), Jeremy Webb (The Punisher), and Liza Johnson (What We Do in the Shadows).
The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and game developer Naughty Dog. Druckmann serves as executive producer alongside Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions, and Mazin.
Are you looking forward to seeing what Gabriel Luna’s Tommy will go through in The Last of Us season 2? Let us know by leaving a comment below.