The past 15 months have seen The Last of Us franchise reach new heights. In September 2022, a remake of the first game was released for the next generation of consoles. In January, HBO’s The Last of Us TV show smashed ratings records. Now, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is on the horizon. TLOU has relentlessly sustained popularity and its something thats looked upon proudly by the franchise’s developers and stars, including Jeffrey Pierce.
Pierce is known best for his role as Tommy Miller in both The Last of Us games, but he also scored a part in the HBO series as well. Prior to Pierce’s appearance at Oz Comic Con in Australia, Kotaku picked the actor’s brains on the upcoming remaster of Part II as well as his hopes for Season 2 of the TV show and the future of Tommy.
This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 and The Last of Us Season 1.
Jeffrey Pierce speaks about The Last of Us 2 Remastered
Having worked on multiple big-name projects from Call of Duty to Medal of Honour, Pierce is no stranger to the odd video game. The actor confessed that while he enjoys games, an agreement with his wife and daughter prohibits him from playing any games he’s not a part of (“Although I have been playing Elden Ring, which I’m definitely not in,” he admitted). However, that does mean that the upcoming The Last of Us Part II: Remastered is fair game.
Just weeks ago, Naughty Dog announced that a PS5 remaster of its infamous sequel would be released in January 2024, just over three years since its initial release on PS4. Like many fans, Pierce was skeptical at first:
“I wasn’t sure that the second one needed a redo because you can play it on PlayStation 5. But the bits and pieces of graphics that I’ve seen are absolutely stunning,” he said. “And I love the idea that people are going to get a chance to play as Tommy in this roguelike mode. So that’s exciting for me personally, but also as a fan of the games.”
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered comes with its share of new content for fans to dig into, including three “lost levels” and a new survival mode that introduces a roster of new playable characters. Despite that, Pierce said he didn’t do any new work as Tommy for the remaster.
“What we did was fully cooked. They just go and work their incredible number of hours and use [their] meticulous attention to detail to bring it even further forward,” he explained.
Adding to the excitement of playing as Tommy is the style he’ll bring to the table. “Tommy’s got a real sort of hard-earned world skills in combat. I think he’s going to be fun to play, with that M1 rifle.”
Working on HBO’s The Last of Us and Season 2 Hopes
The arrival of HBO’s The Last of Us TV series adaptation meant two significant opportunities for Pierce. It brought the character of Tommy to life in live-action (played by Gabriel Luna) and it gifted Pierce with a live-action character of his own, the rebel, Perry.
Perry served valiantly in Episodes 4 and 5 of The Last of Us as a henchman of Melanie Lynskey’s ruthless leader Kathleen, before he met his own brutal end at the hands of a Bloater. Pierce said his final scene went through a few iterations before they landed on a re-enactment of the death animation from the games.
“Basically the moment of my death ends with [the bloater] getting a hold of me. In the original script, he was going to lift me up and tear my torso into two, but they were working with the guys and kept going back and forth. Ultimately, Craig said the physical act of tearing a person in half is so incredibly unlikely that we’ll just come back and do what Neil setup in the game,” he explained.
The TV series also allowed for added depth to Tommy’s character. A sticker on Tommy’s car in Episode 1 confirmed that he was ex-military, which is something Pierce said was on his mind for his portrayal of Tommy in the games.
“This timeline was a little bit different in the game, but I felt like that’s something that [made sense] for a blue collar kid in Texas – one of the few ways out for them is through the military. So it was kind of an obvious in for me,” Pierce said.
That idea of a military past is also something that coloured Pierce’s performance during TLOU Part 2.
“I think that part of that was how Tommy goes after the WLF in game two. Setting that up was an important way to say okay, he is forced to revert to everything that he was before he found Maria and Jackson and his whole new way of being. That the loss of his brother takes away everything that he has earned as a human being. He’s folded back into a mode of being an animal seeking revenge,” he continued.
This backstory is something that will likely be drawn upon in the upcoming second season of The Last of Us, which will tackle the events of the second game.
Pierce said that Gabriel Luna “carried the mantle beautifully” with his performance of Tommy in season 1 and there are some scenes he’s very eager to see translate from the game into the new season. One in particular being the very opening moments.
“Troy [Baker] is carrying the weight in that opening scene, but I think that what I wanted to do, and what I was successful in doing, was being able to be the audience’s point of view and sort of be a mirror for them,” Pierce said.
“The whole ‘Jesus Christ Joel, what did you do?’ was a really wonderful moment for me. So I’m excited to see if that stays in.”
The future of Tommy & TLOU 3 Potential
Amongst this The Last of Us renaissance, one question has been persistent. Will there be a The Last of Us Part 3?
Pierce said there had been discussions about ideas for additional story for Tommy in The Last of Us world, but that there was “no script on the table” for now.
“I think that we’ve spitballed what might be possible for Tommy. We’ve talked, in very broad ways, about what his life would have been in between the outbreak and that sort of life and reuniting with Joel. So, in very broad strokes, I think that there are ideas about what those things would be,” Pierce said.
“But I don’t know. When there’s a script and I see it I’ll know what Neil wants to be done… but at this point, we’re not at a place where the game is, in any way [solid]. Like the ideas are not formed or shaped and there’s no script on the table.”
With all that being said Pierce did share his hopes for a third TLOU game, saying he’d love to play as one of the infected.
“I think it would be cool to play as a runner or a clicker. Like this animalistic thing, just trying to survive because these are just organisms trying to survive. They’re not malicious. They’re just trying to do what they can to not be destroyed. And it’s a different sort of consciousness and a different sort of reality for these creatures. So it would be interesting to see that played out,” he said.
Lastly, Pierce acknowledged the power of the fans, something that has been so incremental in boosting The Last of Us and allowing it to remain in the public consciousness.
“I’ve been blown away by the detail and care that people put into their Last of Us cosplays, it’s just so cool,” he said. “I think if I wasn’t an actor, I would definitely be interested in being a part of that world because I love showing up for fitting and getting all the stuff on it.”
Fans will have the chance to show Pierce their own TLOU cosplays when he appears at Oz Comic-Con Melbourne Xmas Edition from December 9-10.
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