Pedro Pascal is going from protecting Baby Yoda to protecting Ellie.

In major TV casting news, it’s been revealed that Pascal will be playing the role of Joel in the highly-anticipated TV adaptation of The Last Of Us, the blockbuster video game franchise from Naughty Dog. Joel is one of the main protagonists of the game, a survival horror story, who shepherds a young woman named Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States. (Ellie will be played by another Game of Thrones alum, Bella Ramsey.)

According to Deadline, while Pascal “could continue” portraying the title character on The Mandalorian, his scheduling priority will be this new series, which is being produced by HBO:

Pascal currently stars in Disney+’s hugely popular and acclaimed series The Mandalorian, which recently received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama Series. I hear he could continue on the Star Wars series, where he is used sparingly because of the premise of his character, though The Last Of Us has him in first position. The actor recently became available for a new series, attracting multiple big offers from top premium networks and streamers, opting to do The Last Of Us.

The show is being produced by Neil Druckmann, one of the writers and directors of the original The Last of Us game, along with Craig Mazin, who recently created HBO’s Chernobyl. With those creators, this material, and that cast, this really could be HBO’s next huge series a la Game of Thrones. But what does it mean for The Mandalorian?

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