Is Pedro Pascal’s Emmy search finally over thanks to HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’?
Pedro Pascal recently stepped into the shoes of embattled plague survivor Joel on HBO’s new mega-hit “The Last of Us.” And folks are taking notice. This video game adaptation marks the third iconic TV character that Pascal has embodied recently, and the third time might just be the charm when it comes to scoring his first ever Emmy nomination.
Pascal first landed on most people’s radar when he joined the cast of “Game of Thrones” in Season 4 as Oberyn Martell. Audiences were quickly enamored with the bisexual, hot-headed warrior, and they were equally outraged when he met an untimely end by having his face crushed in. Sadly, that tragic moment wasn’t enough for Emmy voters to put the actor on their Emmy ballots for Drama Guest Actor that year. Pascal returned to our screens as the title character in “The Mandalorian” for Disney+. Despite that “Star Wars” saga becoming the rare sci-fi series to land in Drama Series, the Emmys once again left Pascal in the dust. But given that his face is hidden behind a Beskar helmet for most of the series, a nomination would always be an uphill battle.
Thankfully, Pascal’s face is completely unscathed and unobscured on “The Last of Us.” Viewers are all the luckier to take in the emotions the actor conveys with just a look or gesture. His performance as Joel is a grounding force in a genre that could easily feel hokey. Apocalyptic wastelands have been done plenty of times before after all, this one just features a human-killing fungus instead of your basic zombies. But Pascal provides real stakes to the action. Joel visibly carries around decades of anguish and trauma with him thanks to a brutal backstory, and the camera is always hovering around a close-up of Pascal’s face to center the human element of this inhumane tale. Talk about awards season catnip. Emmy voters have historically been hesitant to fully embrace genre storytelling, but recent Drama Series nominees like “Lovecraft Country,” “Westworld,” “Stranger Things” and the aforementioned “Game of Thrones” and “The Mandalorian” have firmly established that these stories have plenty of prestige.
Further adding momentum to Pascal’s potential bid is the rapid success of “The Last of Us.” The series premiere debuted with 4.7 million viewers, then pulled off a miraculous 22% jump in audience for episode 2, which raked in 5.7 million viewers. In fact, every single episode thus far has experienced a steep increase in the number of same-day audience members. Episode 4 just debuted with 7.5 million sets of eyeballs. These massive leaps are unprecedented, even for HBO’s prestige hits. Given the sheer volume of television content being produced, it’s becoming harder than ever to become a “watercooler” show that seemingly everyone is talking about. The few shows that manage to pull off that feat in this crowded landscape are the same ones that tend to reap Emmy nominations.
On February 4, Pascal’s celebrity status rose even higher when he hosted “Saturday Night Live” for the first time. Many of his hilarious sketches went viral, including “Waking Up,” “HBO Mario Kart Trailer” and “Protective Mom.” The actor was even joined on stage by his real-life friend Sarah Paulson, a 2016 Emmy winner for “The People v. O.J. Simpson.”
Pedro Pascal currently sits in a comfortable fifth place in Gold Derby’s exclusive combined odds for this year’s Emmy Awards. As of this writing, he also ranks with eight out of ten editors in their Best Drama Actor predictions. After years of being overlooked by Emmy voters, the actor is finally poised to strike gold for his central performance at the heart of TV’s latest obsession.
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