Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, cast members and creators reveal more about season 2 of 'The Last of Us'

One of the hit video games-turned-TV series is the post-apocalyptic drama, "The Last of Us," which is now in its second season.

Set 20 years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures, the series was created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Based on the 2020 video game The Last of Us Part II, the series follows Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), a hardened middle-aged survivor, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), who is immune to the Cordyceps infection, five years after the events of the first season. It also introduces Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), a soldier who seeks vengeance for a loved one.

Others in the cast include Young Mazino (Jesse), Isabela Merced (Dina), and Gabriel Luna (Tommy).

In a global press conference held in Los Angeles and moderated by Variety's Senior Artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, we were able to talk to the cast and the creatives who told us more about what to expect in season 2 of "The Last of Us" and the challenges they went through in the making of the series.

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Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (co-creators, showrunners)

Oh, my God, this is fantastic. We've been working very hard for two years now. Because we don't really take a break. Season one ends, we start writing season two. Prep. Shoot. Post. So, it's been awesome to remember that people are going to watch it. We're just very excited to start showing people what we've done because we're extraordinarily proud. This cast is amazing.

And Neil?

Oh man. Someone just asked me if I'm excited for the premiere tonight. I'm like, I don't think that far ahead. Like, first we got to finish this thing, then we get to worry about that. But it feels now it's close enough where you could start visualizing and thinking about people watching this show, engaging with it, talking about it. And like Craig was saying, not only everybody here, but just an incredible crew that just put everything on the line: incredible sets, and prosthetics, and nonstop VFX. We got a wild season in front of you.

Bella Ramsey (Ellie)

It's a little bit scary. When season one came out, obviously it was like this huge thing. I think I'm just so aware of season two coming out and being, like, everybody looking at it and looking at me and it's quite scary, but it's exciting. It's nice to be here and like a celebration of all the hard work that we did. And I just hope that people are going to like it because these guys did an incredible job. We all went into it with complete trust for them. And we've been carried and protected the whole way so it's pretty exciting. I hope that people will watch it.

This is for Bella and Pedro. The events of season two takes place five years after the first season. So, can you walk us through what mindset did you have to adopt? Or keep in mind that your characters are now five years older?

Bella Ramsey: We just had to not like each other for a bit.

Pedro Pascal: You had to not like me, which came easy.

Bella Ramsey: So easy. I think that, yes, obviously a lot has changed over those five years. Ellie was like 14 and now is 19. And I think in any teenager's life that's always the formative years, so that definitely informed them. But there's obviously deeper reasons for that for their little rift. I didn't enjoy the feeling of being estranged from Pedro within a scene. It wasn't a nice feeling.

When the cameras were rolling. In real life, we still like each other, just about. And so, it was definitely interesting. What would you say to that?

Pedro Pascal: On a practical level, my first day on set, I feel like it was a beautiful setup by Craig and Neil that the first thing that I got to shoot anyway was just [Bella] and I and in kind of an intimate setting. And there's like, an incredibly painful distance between the two of them in the playing of the scene, but we still got to be on set, fuck around, laugh and stuff like that, and that was incredibly comforting. That was like coming home.

My mindset was grateful to be back and yet at the same time, it's this experience, more than any other I've had, that 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. And so, I feel their pain and, I suppose I was in an unhealthy mindset.

Pedro Pascal (Joel Miller)

What does it feel like now that Joel's back?

It's so special to be back. And also, with such a kind of expanded identity, if that makes sense. Because there are new people and there are old people. Not that you're old, Gabriel.

I think there's something that is really exciting about basically giving everyone another season of a show that everyone loved and that everyone has worked so hard on and has put so much into. Look at how skinny Craig is.

Obviously, this is futuristic, an apocalyptic kind of view of what is going on. And then we turn on the news at 6:00 and it's almost an apocalyptic present. How much is a show like this an escape and how much is it a view into what we need to examine?

I think that storytelling is cathartic in so many ways, always has been. It's the way that human beings have made testimony to life. Whether it was handprints on the walls inside of a cave to a television show that you can stream on Max starting April 13th. And so, for me, growing up, I have always and it's all of my development is based on books I've read, movies I've seen, and television that I've watched. It's very much going to reflect human experience. And under such extreme circumstances, I think that there's a very healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in that kind of catharsis, in a safe space to see human relationships under crisis and in pain and intelligently draw political allegory, societal allegory and based off of the world that we're living in very beautifully and very intelligently.

Gabriel Luna: May I tag on that just for a moment?

Gabriel Luna: I think he spoke so eloquently, beautifully about it. And I think there's a huge catharsis element to it all. The first season, we made a story about a pandemic fearing that maybe there's a fatigue, but I think the experience that everyone had just given them an entry point to what we were doing. And I think the second game, which, as Neil wrote it in the way that Craig and Neil, I'm assuming, writing this, the second season, is, it's about conflicts and where do they start? And who started it? And trying to, and right now all over the world, we're dealing with these conflicts that people are stuck in the wheel of vengeance, and can it be broken? Will it be broken? And that's where we are, so catharsis is a big element to both.

This is for Pedro and Gabriel. Building Tommy and Joel's relationship is important. How has it been watching the brothers grow between seasons?

Pedro Pascal: I think that there was just like a very, very well-placed arc for us. I started the season with [Tommy]. We started season one together on D-Day. Right? And so, there was like a kind of bonding initiation process stepping into all of it. We had our rehearsals and in pre-production we went river rafting.

Gabriel Luna: Yeah, we did go river rafting in the Bow River, which was really nice with Nico [Parker].

Pedro Pascal: Really, really fun. And then, and then we were separated and then put in the snow together. I had you there when I felt like a lot of the flesh of my character started to kind of display itself and got to be played. And then, and I started season two, it felt like a real natural building of what we had established as characters and as scene partners.

Gabriel Luna: And I agree and in that, I think when we first started, we had a really nice FaceTime call where I felt a very uncanny familiarity with you.

Pedro Pascal: [with mock surprise] Everybody feels that I'm so fake.

Gabriel Luna: No, there's a real sweetness. And your face... Maybe it just felt very familiar and just like family.

Pedro Pascal: The borders were still closed, and you were in quarantine. I was the last person to escape.

Gabriel Luna: Yeah. Well, you sent me that piece by - the Blood Meridian piece - so we could work on just the accent. And we both spent time in Texas. I grew up in Austin. You spent time in San Antonio. So, we had that to work on. But I think that the time that you and I had with (director) Jasmila Zbanic rehearsing the scene in the bar was also a very strong bonding element. And you and I sat there and took Craig's words. We didn't change a single word, we promise, but we just re-jumbled the whole thing.

Craig Mazin: That was amazing. You guys, yeah, and everybody's generally incredibly respectful of the writing we do. But we're also respectful of you guys. And sometimes, a director would say like, "oh, do we need this line?" And I'd be like, "I guess not." And then Pedro would come over and say, "let me just defend the script for a second," which I like, [grabbing his chest] my heart, as a writer. I'm like, "oh, thank you!" But these guys took that scene and came back and they're like, look, we've taken this chunk. We moved here, took this chunk and moved it here. And I read and I was like, fuck me, that's so much better. And you know, and I would have told you if I'd thought not. But that's the level of attention and care, like, they're not just fucking around. That scene is a beautiful scene. That's a beautiful moment between the two of you. I love that scene. And then the hurt and then and what it leads to.

Pedro, since the launch of this show and "The Mandalorian", you have become a household name all over the world. And I was just wondering what it's been like for you to navigate this new level of fame. And if you could, talk a little bit about how it has impacted your life on a professional and maybe also a personal level.

Pedro Pascal: This job definitely created a new chapter in my life in a profound way. I think because of the personal experience I had making the show. And then, of course, the way the show was received, the way I remember meeting Craig and Neil for the first time, the way I remember getting the job, the way I remember getting to Alberta, [Gabriel's] FaceTime, [Bella and I] on set for the first time, and that it should be received in a way that is in measure with how deeply important it means to all of us, is a rare thing.

It will never happen again. [laughing], but it's just something that kind of continued. And as far as what that exposure is, right? And, as you say, we all get better known to the public. When the work is this, it kind of shields you. It doesn't shield you necessarily, but it's just an anchor. And it happened in season two as well.

Gabriel Luna (Tommy)

And, Gabe, what about you? Tommy's back.

I feel good. It's good to be back. I'll echo what Pedro said. Just to see Bella, Pedro and Rutina (Wesley) and to just get the family back together. But also, to add these additions that have strengthened the story in so many ways; in so many new and exciting ways. Brought great love for the source material right into it. There's a beautiful infusion of youth, excitement, and energy that they all brought. So, we're really excited for everyone to experience what we made.

What can we expect from Tommy? Now he's a dad this season. Tell us more.

Yes. So, in these five years, his family is growing. He's been reunited with his brother.

The only real turbulence there is the way that you raise a son and how you raise a daughter. And I think you get to examine a lot of that because our family is now these five people and the core of the family, which is Marie and I, and Ezra, his uncle, Joel, and his cousin, Ellie.

It's just really interesting thing about growing the community: who we let in, how we protect those that we love, how we allow those that we care for and the children that we're rearing and trying to send them in the right direction. Like, what elements of danger are we allowing them to encounter so that they can develop their skills?

I think as Uncle Tommy to Ellie, I can see her capabilities as a warrior. And while Joel would very much like to keep her as close to him, and as protected, as possible, I think I am, as the uncle, I'm allowed to have a longer leash that can just absolutely be snapped at any moment because Ellie's a very convincing person. So, you see this growth of their small nuclear family and also his maturity as the leader of the Security Council and the responsibilities he holds for the safety of the community.

Kaitlyn Dever (Abby)

Kaitlyn, what was it like coming into this world for you?

It was like all of the feelings. I was nervous, anxious, but also very excited. I've been a huge fan of this game and the show for a very long time. But the show, the reach of this world is so, so big. The world of "The Last of Us" is so large. And so, you can definitely feel that- in wardrobe fittings when you're first, in prep and then finally getting on set. It still feels very big, but I felt less nervous once I got onto the set just because of this wonderful group of people and being held by Craig and Neil. It really felt like I was being cared for and taken care of in a way that I haven't ever really experienced ever before. So, it was really a thrill for a person and an actor.

We were in an actual blizzard. We were in the snow, and I was put on a tall mountain.

Craig Mazin: Kaitlyn did things that I'm not sure, like you even should have done. I don't know how you did them. When we meet new performers, we're sort of like we knew her, obviously, as an actor and what could she do - but when you meet the person and you're like, well, what can you actually do? What are you comfortable with? And Kaitlyn just would never say no. And it was amazing. And, when you see just how physically tremendous her performance is, it's insane. Very grateful. If you look down on this row, we're going to get to [Isabela and Young] at the end too. We just haven't fucked up in casting.

But it's just like every single one of these guys. I can't wait for you to see what they do and how they interact with each other. It's amazing.

Isabela Merced (Dina)

What was it like for you coming into the world of "The Last of Us"?

It was really cool. I just felt like the new kid at school. I think Dina and I have a lot in common in the sense that I have this random confidence for no reason.

I just really appreciate that they embraced me for who I was, and I really feel like I was seen through your eyes: Craig and Neil. And it was just a really good environment to flourish as an actor. And I think that's why my mom will be proud of me.

How would you describe your character and what has it been like for you as an actor that's been in all these franchises of late, from Sony's "Spider-Man Villain Universe" and "Aliens" to "The Last of Us" now and "Superman" later this summer?

Oh, awesome. Thanks. I see Dina as an extension of myself, if I were in sort of like an apocalyptic situation, I would try to lighten it up a bit. I think that's our superpower as humans, is we really have the power to shift our perspective and make our own reality. And I think Dina is sort of also Ellie's compass and light, in a way. And I think Dina's also grieving at the same time, and we explore that [groaning] spoilers [more groaning].

Young Mazino (Jesse)

Young, what about for you? What was it like coming into the world of "The Last of Us"?

I felt incredibly fortunate. I have so much gratitude to everyone here for being so open. Joining a second season for something that was so well established the first time and the trust that I think Craig and Neil had in me to deliver on this character. I do remember getting more nervous when I stepped onto the set and realizing the sheer scale of the town and seeing the huge gate that they built. That's when I started to feel a little tripped out. But then the longer I was there, I realized the energy was so warm and so inviting, and I felt like there was no ego on set. And I think that's a rare thing. And I had such a blast. It was chill.

Young, what can we expect from your character this season?

I think a lot of Jesse - his character - comes out of his relationships with Ellie and Dina. I think a lot of that is informed in the writing and his priorities and his ideals, and what he cares about all gets kind of put to the test because of his relationship to Ellie and Dina and his obligation to the community that looked out for him when he needed somewhere to stay.