Pedro Pascal’s performance as Joel Miller clicked with audiences, who voted The Last of Us star Best Hero at the 2023 MTV Movie & TV Awards. HBO’s hit live-action adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game for PlayStation saw the actor — who also accepted the MTV award for Best Duo on behalf of his co-star, Bella Ramsey — take home his first Golden Popcorn. “I am a child of MTV. I grew up on MTV,” Pascal said in his video acceptance speech, which you can watch below. “So this means the absolute world to me.”
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Other nominees in the category included Diego Luna (Andor), Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania), and Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick). For Best Duo, Pascal and Ramsey’s Joel and Ellie won out over Camila Mendes and Maya Hawke (Do Revenge), Jenna Ortega and Thing (Wednesday), Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò (The White Lotus), and Tom Cruise and Miles Teller (Top Gun: Maverick).
Pascal was a two-time nominee at the 2021 ceremony for his role as the armored bounty hunter Din Djarin on Star Wars: The Mandalorian, where he was nominated for Best Hero and Best Duo for his pairing with Grogu (a.k.a. “Baby Yoda”).
Following its nine-episode first season earlier this year on HBO, The Last of Us scored five nominations, including Best Hero for Pascal and Best Duo for Pascal and Ramsey. Other nominations to be revealed tonight are Best Show, where TLOU competes against hits like Stranger Things and Yellowstone; Best Kiss for Anna Torv, whose Tess shared a tendril “kiss” with an Infected (Philip Prajoux); and Breakthrough Performance for Ramsey, whose competition includes Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn and HBO’s House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy.
HBO has already ordered The Last of Us season 2, with Pascal and Ramsey returning as fungal apocalypse survivors Joel and Ellie.
“Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann], alongside EP Carolyn Strauss, and the rest of ourphenomenal cast and crew, have defined a genre with their masterfuldebut season of The Last of Us,” Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming, Head of HBO Drama Series and Films, said in January after the series premiere marked HBO’s second largest debut, behind only Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon.”After pulling off this unforgettable first season, I can’t wait towatch this team outshine themselves again with season two.”
“I’m humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so many peoplehave tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’sjourney. The collaboration with Craig Mazin, our incredible cast &crew, and HBO exceeded my already high expectations,” said co-creator Neil Druckmann.”Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again withseason two! On behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog & PlayStation,thank you!”
Added Mazin, “I’m so grateful to Neil Druckmann and HBO for our partnership, andI’m even more grateful to the millions of people who have joined us onthis journey. The audience has given us the chance to continue, and as a fan of thecharacters and world Neil and Naughty Dog created, I couldn’t be moreready to dive back in.”
The Last of Us season 1 is now streaming on HBO Max.
