The series premiere of The Last of Us debuted to instant success, pulling in such high viewership that HBO Max had crashed. Critical reception has also been very strong with the show premiering to near-perfect scores at Rotten Tomatoes. A lot of praise has been given to the casting with Pedro Pascal and Nico Parker bringing life to their characters, Joel Miller and daughter Sarah, in a harrowing episode.
Long before the premiere, however, there had been a certain level of criticism online from people lambasting the show's diverse casting. In the original video game, Joel and Sarah are depicted as white, and a vocal minority has argued against this change in ethnicity for the fictional characters. This is nothing new, as there are often complaints on social media anytime characters go through "racebending" with adaptations. Still, the overwhelmingly positive reception to The Last of Us would suggest that the casting has been spot on.
Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment, Parker also addressed the complaints about her casting. For her part, she understands to an extent how fans can feel leery about something they love getting reimagined. However, it's clear with many of these trolls that the complaints go further than that, as some may feel that no non-white actors should have been considered for these roles. That's where the complaints lose Parker, as she sees great value in adding more inclusivity to the cast. From the interview:
"There are people for whom the game is incredibly important to them. But when it comes from a place where it's just a disdain toward any kind of inclusivity, that's where I don't care. I don't value that opinion and I don't agree. I hope they can look past it and still enjoy the show. But I think inclusivity is incredibly important. If young kids watch the show and feel they're represented through race or hair or anything, that's ten times more important than anyone who doesn't like it because they don't like to see different people on their screen."
Pedro Pascal Says You Can't Please Everyone
Parker's co-star recently addressed these complaints as well. Pascal similarly told Yahoo that you just can't please everyone, and with that in mind, he doesn't pay too much attention to those kinds of comments. He also pointed out that the original video game itself was "very innovative in its inclusiveness," so even if there are some changes made to certain characters' ethnicities, keeping a diverse cast is actually faithful to the source material. As Pascal explains:
"You can't make everybody happy. The game is very, very innovative in its inclusiveness. So really, it's a way of honoring the original source material, the way that Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] have gone about casting and telling this story."
The Last of Us premiered on Jan. 15 and the first episode is available to stream on HBO Max. New episodes debut on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.