A warning for The Last of Us season 2 adds fuel to the fire of teases and rumors that have projected the fate of one of the series’ main characters. The Last of Us came to household screens as a true-to-the-source television adaptation of the identically named action-adventure video game from Naughty Dog and Sony Computer Entertainment. Season 1 of the HBO series was lauded for its steady handling of the source material, yet the incredibly harrowing plot and story-building details of the video game make for a discomforting watch that often provokes audiences into questioning whether the show will continue to follow the game so closely.

The decision to remain true to the source is quite purposeful; the third-person perspective that the game places players in is an intimate exploration of a post-apocalyptic world overrun by fungi-infected, cannibalistic creatures. To have audiences successfully reach the level of emotion one would feel playing the Last of Us game, co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin and others came together to create a television adaptation that evokes similar impassioned reactions from audiences. Now, a warning about The Last of Us season 2 from Mazin suggests the production’s continuation of the game’s distressing themes, which places one main character’s fate in danger.

The Last Of Us Creator’s Warning Implied Joel Will Be Killed In Season 2

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Craig Mazin revealed his expectation that The Last of Us season 2 will divide audiences. While season 2 will be an amalgamation of The Last of Us Part II‘s game content and original show details, Mazin ensured the HBO series will first and foremost serve the story narrative. His comment in the Entertainment Weekly interview perfectly reflects this sentiment:

The journey is the point. There are things that will shock people, things that were in the game, things that were not in the game, and that’s okay. As long as they’re purposeful, they’re not there to just simply shock. We are not interested in creating social media fear. We just want to tell the story the way we think it should be told. Will there be furor? Yeah, probably.

All in all, Mazin’s interview is nothing short of a consoling pat on the back for audience members who are almost guaranteed to witness the death of the main character Joel (Pedro Pascal) at some point in The Last of Us season 2.

Mazin’s comments confirm that the series is principally concerned with telling a great story above anything else and won’t surrender to the whims of saving or changing characters without purpose. As the game finds Joel’s death kicking off Ellie’s revenge narrative of The Last of Us Part II, the only way to continue her heart-wrenching and compelling story arc is to stay the course of the game without adding and/or altering too much of the series that it transforms into something entirely different. The fact that Mazin is promising “furor” and the way Joel’s death is prophesied by the game means that audiences are destined to witness this character’s demise.

Why Joel’s Death In The Last Of Us Will Be So Controversial

The teases and rumors that foretell Joel’s season 2 death have gone so viral because he was such a large component of the premiere season of The Last of Us. Pascal’s emotional performance brought the charming humanity of a grieving father bent on protecting Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a young teen caught in post-apocalyptic hell. Their characterizations and the relationship they share on screen perfectly set up what separates The Last of Us series from the game. How audiences relate to the narratives of The Last of Us is far heavier and more effective when experienced by way of the television series than when experienced in the short-lived, fast-paced journey of the game.

Joel’s death, whenever it comes to jump scare the lot of The Last of Us viewers, will be controversial because the series will lose one-half of the dynamic that made it so raw, real, and fantastic. Although losing Joel in the end will be what maintains the story’s integrity and what fulfills the wishes of Craig Mazin to keep the series at its best storytelling capability, it still will be a polarizing and catastrophic event for audiences of The Last of Us.