Pedro Pascal Will Be Earning A Pretty Penny For His Role In The Last Of Us

The trailer for the highly-anticipated new HBO series "The Last of Us" — based on the 2013 video game of the same name — has just dropped, creating even more buzz for the upcoming 2023 series. Developed for television by Craig Mazin ("Chernobyl") and Neil Druckmann (who worked on the video game), the series is set in a post-apocalyptic United States and follows smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) who is given the task of escorting a teen named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the country.

Alongside Pascal and Ramsey, the show boasts an ensemble cast, which includes "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." actor Gabriel Luna, "Fringe" star Anna Torv, "Yellowjackets" star Melanie Lynskey, and "The White Lotus" breakout Murray Bartlett. But, of course, Pascal is at the center of the show's cast — and the story's narrative.

Most recently, Pascal has starred in the "Star Wars" Disney+ series "The Mandalorian" since 2019 and made a three-episode guest appearance in "The Book of Boba Fett" in 2022 (via IMDb). Other prominent projects for Pascal include "Narcos," "The Mentalist" and "Game of Thrones." Clearly, the actor has built up quite an impressive resume.

So, how much did it take to get Pascal on board for "The Last of Us?" Here's how much the actor is making for the HBO role.

Variety recently published an in-depth look at how much actors make for projects from streaming services. The article details the behind-the-scenes pressure for streaming services to cast big-name actors in their shows in order to recreate the major success of shows such as HBO's "Mare of Easttown" starring Kate Winslet. Thus, casting big-name actors means paying big salaries — and Pascal's salary for "The Last of Us" is amongst the notably high paychecks of streaming services' actors. According to Variety, Pascal is making a whopping $600K per episode of "The Last of Us." The first season contains ten episodes, which means that Pascal has taken home $6 million for his work on the show thus far.

Pascal's pay of $600K per episode is on par with that of the three stars of Showtime's "The First Lady" (Viola Davis, Gillian Anderson, and Michelle Pfeiffer), as well as Martin Short and Steve Martin of "Only Murders in the Building." Winslet made just a bit more for "Mare of Easttown" with $650K per episode, which is similar to what the stars of HBO's "And Just Like That..." (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon) made.

On the highest end of the spectrum, Jeff Bridges made $1 million per episode of FX's "The Old Man," and Chris Pratt made $1.4 million per episode of Amazon Prime's "The Terminal List."