Tommy star reveals why one line was cut from the emotional goodbye to Joel in The Last of Us Season 2

If there is one person who was impacted by Joel's death in The Last of Us Season 2 almost as much as Ellie was, it's Joel's brother Tommy. Gabriel Luna, who plays Tommy on the show, recently sat down for a conversation with GQ after the devastating episodes of Season 2, where Joel is brutally murdered by Abby for killing her father, an ex-firefly. While this happened, Tommy was defending the town, Jackson from an onslaught of thousands of infected as they tried to invade.

Gabriel Luna revealed that even though Tommy only said one line to Joel after his death, the original script had some more lines that were later cut. He explained why this decision was made.

Here's everything Gabriel Luna said about Tommy's farewell to Joel in The Last of Us Season 2.

Tommy's farewell to Joel was cut down to a single line in The Last of Us Season 2

While Abby was exacting her revenge on Joel in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 1 for killing her father, the ex-Firefly doctor who was operating on Ellie in Season 1, Joel's brother Tommy was busy fighting off thousands of infected as they tried to invade Jackson. He succeeded in defending his town, even though many people died in the fight, but unbeknownst to him, his brother was killed not far away from him.

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3 opened with an emotional montage where Tommy was saying goodbye to his brother. He cleans his body and says one single heartbreaking line to his brother:

"Give my love to Sarah (Joel's daughter)"

Gabriel Luna shared that originally Tommy had more than just that dialogue in The Last of Us Season 2 Episode 3, but the lines were cut later.

"It's just a really strong moment [that] says everything you need to say. There were other words in the scene, but I'm so happy they're all gone because you didn't need 'em."

He said that originally in The Last of Us Season 2, the lines also included Tommy telling Joel about Ellie - that she was hurt, but she'd be alright, and Tommy would take care of her. However, these lines were cut later. Luna revealed that this was because this line expressed how the show's focus was now shifting from Ellie and Joel to just Ellie and how the torch was now being passed from Joel to Bella, Abby, and Tommy. Here's what he said:

"The more I was doing it, I had a sense, like, "No, I don't think we need any of this." .... a lot of what we left out was about Ellie, me telling him what happened to Ellie....At the same time, it was less about Ellie in that moment than it was the show itself. There was this weird sense of the passing of the torch from Pedro's great leadership to Bella's, Kaitlyn's, myself, and the people who were going to be carrying this story forward from here — Isabela, Young, and everyone.

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