Why One Last Of Us Star Refuses To Watch The Second Season

This article contains spoilers for the first two seasons of HBO's "The Last of Us."

If you were one of the fans struggling with the idea of seeing Pedro Pascal go through a heartbreaking death scene in season 2 of "The Last of Us," don't worry, Nico Parker feels precisely the same way. The young actress, who also plays Astrid in the live-action version of "How to Train Your Dragon," recently spoke about her reluctance to watch her on-screen dad get killed off after having such a strong connection with him in the show's premiere episode.

Parker played Sarah Miller, the daughter of Pascal's character, Joel, and one of the first major character deaths in "The Last of Us" story. Joel takes years to recover from the loss of his daughter, and eventually finds hope that he may be able to restore that aspect of his life after he crosses paths with Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Speaking to "Late Night With Seth Meyers" about the show, Parker confessed that she's not up to date on "The Last of Us" or the heartbreaking exit that came out of it. 

"I haven't watched the second season because the idea of seeing him die is so deeply distressing," Parker explained. "But I'm a huge fan of Bella [Ramsey] and Kaitlyn Dever and Isabela [Merced] and Gabriel [Luna] and all of them, so I do want to watch it because I want to see them. But Pedro dying is just a lot." 

However, there have been exceptions to death scenes involving Pascal that Parker is totally fine with seeing.

It's been a while since such a popular actor has been offed in such graphic fashion as Pedro Pascal. His breakthrough role was as Oberyn Martell in "Game of Thrones," which saw him charm his way into the fourth season, only for his cranium to be smashed by the bare hands of The Mountain (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson). He also played a hero in "Gladiator II" as General Acacius, who became a human pin cushion after being shot to death by archers. Strangely, this death Parker had no issue with. "I watched 'Gladiator II,' and he dies in that, and I was totally fine," she admitted. 

As for the man himself, Pascal confessed that there was something different about Joel's demise that set it apart from his other character deaths. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about filming that especially brutal scene, the former star of "The Last of Us" mentioned walking onto the set as if he was literally at death's door.

"I killed the vibe completely as soon as anyone set their eyes on me," Pascal recalled. "This kind of shock and heartbreak ... it was weird to be on the receiving end of that. It's like the extreme version of, 'Is there something on my face?' I really could see this sort of grief take over everyone's look in their eyes." 

The question remains whether audiences will have to endure that moment again, given that season 3 will follow the perspective of Joel's killer, Abby (Dever). Best to keep an eye out for any ski lodges, just in case.

The first two seasons of "The Last of Us" are streaming on HBO Max.