Summary
The key to any great adaptation of an already established story, such as the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’sThe Dark Towerby legendary horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan, is finding the right actors for the roles that audiences have been dreaming up in their minds for so long. This is especially the case in literature, when many times characters are relegated to the imaginations and artist’s interpretations of imagery rather than a specific person. The best way to cast for projects likeThe Dark Toweris to find actors who have shown a resume of roles that embody the character they are meant to play. For the role of Roland Deschain, the last of the gunslingers and the protagonist of theDark Towerseries, there is one actor fromThe Last of Usseries that perfectly captures Roland’s essence: Pedro Pascal.
One of Hollywood’s brightest names in recent years, Pedro Pascal, is no stranger to complex and leading roles. From playing the intense role of The Viper onGame of Thronesto becoming the mostly faceless lead of the acclaimedStar Warsseries, TheMandolorian, and now leading the first family of the Marvel universe,Mister Fantastic ofThe Fantastic Four, Pedro Pascal is renowned for tackling complex roles and bringing them to life with authenticity. That has been the case for the role of Joel inThe Last of Us, and while Joel is a character grounded in our world, his steely determination, profound sense of loss, and intensity make him the perfect role to showcase how Pedro Pascal would make the perfect Gunslinger.
The Dark Tower’s Roland Deschain, EXPLAINED
Before looking into how similar Pedro Pascal’s role as Joel inThe Last of Usis to Roland, audiences must first know who Roland truly is. Before becoming the last of the famed Gunslingers, the protectors of the land for In-World and beyond, he was the son of the head of the Gunslingers and the kingdom of Gilead, Steven Deschain. Along with his mother Gabrielle, Roland was born to be a gunslinger, training until he was tricked by his father’s advisor (Roland’s main antagonist in the series, Marten Broadcloak) into taking the test of becoming a gunslinger as a teenager. Instead of failing and being sent into exile, Roland passed, becoming the youngest gunslinger ever, but to protect his son from assassins, he sent Roland on his first mission to the small Barony of Mejis,to look for signs of the rebellion leader, John Farson.
While in Mejis, Roland meets and falls in love with Susan Delgado, a local girl being forced to marry a local government official. The two have a passionate love affair, but the manipulations of the witch Rhea of the Coos cause the town to turn on them, and as Roland completes his mission to stop Farson’s forces from using Mejis to launch an attack on the kingdom, he loses his love and is forced back to Gilead under the thrall of a magical object, Maerlyn’s Grapefruit, a powerful talisman of power. Using the sphere to manipulate him, Roland’s enemies make Roland think Rhea had followed him home, and he guns her down,only to learn it was, in reality, his mother.
Soon after, Roland fights with his father and the last of the gunslingers against John Farson and his men, as the kingdom of Gilead falls and Roland is left for dead among his friends and alliesat the Battle of Jericho Hill. After surviving, he takes up the mission he discovered while under the grapefruit’s thrall to find and climb the steps of the fabled Dark Tower, the epicenter of the entire multiverse. On his journey, chasing the man in black, he discovers the workings of the Crimson King and his forces, who are actively working to take down The Dark Tower and let chaos run rampant. He is forced to take on allies once more, drawing people from our world to aid his quest to protect the Dark Tower by any means.
How The Last Of Us’s Joel Makes Pedro Pascal Look Like The Perfect Gunslinger
The arc of Roland from a young age until the final book’s last pages is one of tragedy and grit. The same could be said of Joel, a former soldier who finds himself at the center of a worldwide pandemic-turned-apocalypse as he loses the person closest to him. It takes decades and a new mission to return his sense of purpose and meaning to his life, and the actions of a child to get him to not only get in touch with his emotions but open himself up to the possibility of finding family once more. This is a similar journey Rolandgoes on when he meets Jake Chambers, a young boy stuck in his world to whom he is intrinsically tied.
One of the biggest things that connects Joelto Roland is how they are both men who are willing to do whatever is necessary to complete their missions. Joel, throughout the first season, shows not only the necessary ruthlessness in a cold world to protect Ellie at any cost, but in the show’s final moments of the first season, he showcases how far he is willing to go in order to save Ellie’s life, even if it means doing reprehensible things or outright lying to her. Roland has found himself on a similar journey, with the gunslinger having made decisions to sacrifice others along the way and taking extreme actions to either help his allies or take down the threats in front of him, no matter what others may think of him afterward.
From both Joel and Roland’s rugged and grizzled looks, to the otherworldly threats they both face and the emotional losses that define their backstories, Pedro Pascal has proven not only to be the perfect leading role in a major franchise, but one of the best examples of what Roland Deschain could embody and look like. The balance of great emotion and steely determination has becomevery prevalent in Pedro Pascal’s portrayal of Joel, and that same intensity could help establish Roland Deschain as one of the most prolific, adaptable characters in Stephen King’sDark Towerfranchise.
