The Last Of Us Season 3: Is Pedro Pascal Gone For Good? Here's What The EPs Say

This post contains spoilers from The Last of Us' Season 2 finale. Proceed accordingly.

Season 2 of The Last of Us taught us that if you love someone, you can always see their face. But will fans have to rely solely on memory to summon Pedro Pascal when the HBO drama returns for Season 3?

Joel, played by Pascal, was killed in the second episode of Season 2. His death had an element of surprise for both viewers unfamiliar with the video game, who didn't expect it, and longtime fans, who didn't know exactly when it would occur. The character was absent from Episodes 3 and 4, then popped up in a quick flashback at the end of Episode 5 that led into the flashback-filled Episode 6. (Read a recap of that episode here.) Joel was not present in any form in Sunday's Season 2 finale. (Read that recap here.)

Now that the bulk of the Joel scenes from the games have been covered in the HBO series, what does that mean for Pascal's involvement in the third season (and potentially beyond)?

During a recent call with reporters, series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann stopped short of answering that question definitively. But we think what they did disclose merits consideration and discussion.

"I remember when people were asking about Season 2, they were like, 'And what about Joel... and when he dies?' I'm like, 'Wait, what you you mean 'when'?" Mazin said, laughing. Season 3 "will arrive, and it will do what it does. Even if I thought I knew now exactly how it was going to go, I'm experienced enough to know that two weeks from now, we may have a different idea of how it should go."

He added: "All I can say is we haven't seen the last of Kaitlyn Dever, and we haven't seen the last of Bella Ramsey, and we haven't seen the last of Isabela Merced, and we haven't seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story. So I guess the short answer to that question that everyone is asking is: No, I'm not answering."

Druckmann chimed in, "I'll give a bit more, which is: Whether you will see them on screen or not, their presence will be there throughout."

So, Last of Us fans, what do you think? On one hand, neither executive producer mentioned Pascal by name. On the other, the inclusion of "a lot of people who are currently dead in the story" certainly covers him. Think hard about what you think should and/or will happen in Season 3, then tell us about it in the comments.