Matthew McConaughey and Pedro Pascal Matt Baron/Shutterstock; Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
It’s laborious to think about The Final of Us with out Pedro Pascal, however cocreator Craig Mazin revealed that there was one other contender for the function of Joel — Matthew McConaughey.
The Oscar winner, 53, was rumored as a attainable candidate earlier than Pascal, 48, landed the function in 2021. Mazin, 52, confirmed the hypothesis throughout a latest interview on the “Completely satisfied Unhappy Confused” podcast.
“I did speak to Matthew,” Mazin recalled. “I can’t say that it was a sequence [of conversations]. It was extra of like, ‘Hey! Right here’s one thing to speak about.’”
Craig Mazin at ‘The Final of Us’ FYC Occasion Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
Mazin additionally addressed previous rumors that Mahershala Ali was additionally thought-about for the HBO drama’s lead, saying, “I truly by no means talked to Mahershala.”
In response to Mazin, he and cocreator Neil Druckmann — who wrote the online game on which the present relies — have been all the time all in favour of Pascal, however he wasn’t initially out there to movie one other TV present. Pascal at present stars because the titular character on The Mandalorian, and his movie roster is often fairly full.
“Pedro was on our checklist from the beginning. We have been advised that he was unavailable,” Mazin defined. “After which as we have been floundering about somewhat bit, I received a name from his agent who mentioned, ‘You recognize, he truly may be out there.’”
Pascal and costar Bella Ramsey have been formally confirmed to play Joel and Ellie, respectively, in February 2021. Followers lastly received to see their performances almost two years later when The Final of Us premiered in January, changing into HBO’s second-largest debut ever. The community renewed the sequence for season 2 lower than two weeks after the premiere.
Whereas Mazin was sure Pascal was the proper selection for Joel, the actor admitted earlier this yr that he was initially nervous to just accept the half. “It grew to become very, very clear in a short time how a lot individuals cherished the sport and the expertise of taking part in the sport,” Pascal advised Leisure Tonight in January. “That was scary as a result of you will get actually right into a ebook. You may get actually right into a sequence. And that is the following stage of stepping into an immersive expertise of taking part in these characters.”
Although he is aware of followers of the sport are eagerly awaiting to see how the present adapts the story, Pascal himself hasn’t performed. “It’s so unhappy, I haven’t any talent. I attempted, you realize,” he confessed to British GQ in April 2022. “After which it was solely a matter of minutes earlier than I needed to hand it over to my nephew. It actually takes a particular sort of talent, and I don’t have it.”
