HBO's The Last of Us was a massive hit, so it didn't take long for the survival horror video game adaptation to be renewed for a second season.
A few minor (well, depending on your perspective) changes aside, the first season stayed pretty faithful to Naughty Dog's original game, but will season 2 follow suit - particularly as it pertains to a certain shocking character death?
Spoilers follow.
In The Last of Us Part II, Joel is killed-off pretty quickly when he's tracked down by the daughter of the doctor he murdered in order to save Ellie. Abbie enacts a brutal revenge, beating Joel to death with a golf club while Ellie watches on helplessly.
If season 2 of the HBO series sticks rigidly to the game's story, Joel would need to be taken out within the first few episodes. Would HBO really get rid of its male lead so quickly?
"It wouldn't make sense to follow the first game so faithfully only to stray severely from the path," Pedro Pascal said in an interview with Esquire. "So, yeah, that's my honest answer."
Bella Ramsey adds that viewers are "not emotionally ready" to see Joel die, but showrunner Craig Mazin seems to suggest that he could make a few alterations.
"This should be fairly obvious to anyone by now, but I don't fear killing characters," he explained. "But the important thing to note is that neither [co-creator Neil Druckmann] nor I feel constrained by the source material."
Whatever way they approach it, it's safe to say there is going to be backlash!