Pedro Pascal discusses the connections between Din Djarin and Joel’s adventures in The Mandalorian and The Last of Us. Pascal gained notoriety for his portrayal of the stoic bounty hunter Mandalorian Din Djain in The Mandalorian, and he will reprise the character in The Last of Us. Like Din, Joel is responsible for looking after a small kid, a role he accepts grudgingly and develops a relationship with. As he did with The Mandalorian, Pascal’s background perfectly positions him to take on this popular character and inject something of his own.
Pascal outlines the various aspects that went into building his portrayal as Joel and how working on The Last Of Us and The Mandalorian concurrently enhanced both performances, calling the experience “a wonderful double dip.”
Pedro Pascal: Not only that, but they were happening simultaneously as well. It’s an amazing double dip for me. And I think that there are really, really strong comparisons in terms of their journeys and their relationships. With Joel, I think it was a really fascinating opportunity to discover elements from the source material, from Craig’s and Neil’s pages, from our locations, our sets and our effects; being with Bella all the time.
That really kind of put all of the pieces together for me and I continued to discover them. And only in retrospect when you’re asking this question, do I realize that maybe as far as Mando and Joel are concerned, one was that they were in relationship and informing one another.
Comparing Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian and Last of Us characters
Both Din Djarin and Joel are characters who have suffered enormous losses and are profoundly wounded. Once they connect with a youngster they have been charged with protecting, they gradually start to open themselves. Despite the extreme differences between the worlds they inhabit, their paths are remarkably similar. Pascal probably had the opportunity to draw on the parallels between both characters while also realizing what made Joel in The Last of Us vs. Din Djarin unique by portraying both roles concurrently.
Despite their striking similarities, Din Djarin and Joel demonstrate contrasting acting abilities for Pascal. The Mandalorian probably doesn’t provide Pascal the same opportunity to display his entire range of acting skills as The Last of Us does because Din Djarin has mostly been a voice-over part. After getting back together in The Book of Boba Fett after Grogu decided to stay with the person who had taken care of him rather than enlisting in the Jedi Order, Din and Grogu are together in the third season of The Mandalorian. The third season dives more deeply into Din’s ancestry than the first two, which were more concerned with locating Grogu’s tribe and his place in the world.
The Last of Us can explore Ellie’s perspective in a way that The Mandalorian hasn’t been able to since she can talk and has some agency that Grogu doesn’t, which is perhaps one of the most fascinating distinctions between the two games. This implies that Joel’s development will be impacted by Ellie’s decisions, communication style, and actions. Pascal has a superb grasp of the protective father figure who is reluctant to step up. He conveys a stoicism and hardness that conceal great suffering in both The Mandalorian and The Last of Us. Pascal’s abilities are demonstrated in The Mandalorian, but in The Last of Us, he goes beyond voice acting to demonstrate his acting prowess.