The Last of Us TV series has had its fair share of surprise cameos and appearances by familiar faces throughout its episodes. In Season 1 of the HBO series, not only did Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett appear as Bill and Frank, but fans also got Anna Torv as Tess, Storm Reid as Riley, Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, and even game star Ashley Johnson as Anna, Ellie’s mother. So far, Season 2 of The Last of Us hasn’t had too many surprise appearances, though Catherine O’Hara has appeared quite a bit as local therapist Gail and Joe Pantoliano is set to debut as Eugene. Episode 4 of The Last of Us Season 2 however began with perhaps the most shocking cameo by a well-known star, in part because their previous body of work is so different from their Last of Us character. Spoilers follow!
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As the latest episode of The Last of Us begins, the action flashes back to 2018 in the Seattle QZ, fifteen years after Outbreak Day and eleven years prior to the present day events of the show. The episode begins with a slew of FEDRA soldiers talking and blowing off steam inside of an armored truck. One soldier appears to be the life of the party, telling stories about mistreating people via his FEDRA authority (and setting the stage for the Seraphites in an interesting way). What isn’t immediately obvious is that this foul-mouthed soldier with reckless disregard for his fellow man is none other than former Nickelodeon star, Josh Peck.
“JOSH PECK WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE GET OUT OF THAT FEDRA UNIFORM,” one user wrote on X after realizing Josh Peck was the one in the episode.
“Josh Peck jump scare to start the episode,” added another.
“We are SECONDS into new tlou why is Josh Peck here,” one user said critically.
To make the sudden arrival of Josh Peck that much more jarring, The Last of Us had a surprise up its sleeve. In the sequence, the FEDRA truck they’re driving in is stopped on the street and approached by a group of unarmed citizens in what appears to be potentially threatening maneuver. Jeffrey Wright’s Isaac exits the truck to talk to them, only for the series to reveal that this was all planned by Isaac and was him officially joining up with the WLF and leaving FEDRA behind. As one last act of defiance against FEDRA, Isaac unclips a few grenades from his belt and tosses them back into the truck before shutting the door, killing everyone inside….including Josh Peck.
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“JOSH PECK IS NOT ALLOWED ON GOOD TV SHOWS,” one user said of his appearance. “SO THEY KILLED HIM TO RESTORE BALANCE.”
It’s unclear if Peck’s appearance in the episode was rooted in the fact that fans best know him for appearing in hit Nickelodeon shows like The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh, and if the filmmakers were using that as a way to subvert expectations by having him play a nasty character. On the flipside, the addition of Peck in a role where he’s nearly unrecognizable could very well just have been an actor getting hired to play a part without any thought to his past work (something that happens every day). In any event, the arrival of Peck in The Last of Us, even for just one scene, gave the series a jolt that fans were not expecting to see.
New episodes of The Last of Us premiere Sundays at 9 PM on HBO and MAX
