The co-creators of the successful HBO adaptation of The Last Of Us and its stars are addressing the elephant in the hospital room: the fate of Joel in the second game. Spoiler warning for TLOU Part 2.

In TLOU Part 2 early on, Joel is brutally murdered by Abby, whose dad was killed by Joel in Part 1. The dad is a surgeon who had to perform the fatal surgery on Ellie before meeting his eventual fate.

Pedro Pascal, the actor who plays Joel in the TV show, said he is aware of Joel’s fate despite not playing the games or watching the scene in question. He did say the following on Esquire:

“It wouldn’t make sense to follow the first game so faithfully only to stray severely from the path. So, yeah, that’s my honest answer.”

Bella Ramsey, the actress who plays Ellie, also said the following:

“If that does take place in the show, I don’t know that I’m emotionally ready for it.”

HBO series co-writer and executive producer Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann said that nothing is off the table when it comes to Joel’s fate in Season 2.

“This should be fairly obvious to anyone by now, but I don’t fear killing characters. But the important thing to note is that neither Neil nor I feel constrained by the source material.”

The Last Of Us Season 2 will only start shooting at the end of the year, or even the beginning of 2024, so it’ll only be out between the tail end of 2024 and early 2025. It’ll be a long wait until Joel’s fate is decided in live-action form. For more HBO’s The Last Of Us, check out our features.