Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Last of Us season 2.Sean Bean has long been known for playing characters who die onscreen, andPedro Pascalmay have earned the same reputation. For decades now, Sean Bean has been known for playing characters who die on-screen. FromGoldenEyetoLord of the Ringsand a few dozen others, Bean’s constant character deaths literally became a meme. Meanwhile,Pedro Pascal has made some great movies and showsover the years, but he’s also rocketed into super-stardom in recent years. Shows likeThe Mandalorianand movies like hisupcoming filmFantastic Four: First Stepshave made Pascal almost a household name.
After the shockingending ofThe Last of Usseason 2, episode 2, when Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller was killed by Abby (Kaityln Dever), fans started to notice a pattern in his filmography that mirrors Bean’s. In many of Pascal’s most notable movies and shows, his characters end up dying. It happened inGame of Throneswith Oberyn Martell, inGladiator IIwith Marcus Acacius, andThe Last of Usis just the most recent addition to the list.Pascal is gaining a reputation for playing characters who are destined to die. Whether he’s the “new” Sean Bean, however, is harder to determine.
Pedro Pascal Has Died 11 Times In Movies & Shows (Including Some Of His Biggest Characters)
Some Of Pedro Pascal’s Most Notable Projects End With His Death
Of the 56 TV shows and movies Pedro Pascal has appeared in so far, his character has died on-screen in 11 of them.Pascal’s characters have been shot with bullets and arrows, impaled, beheaded, beaten to death, had their eyes gouged out, and even exploded in almost 20% of his acting credits. His first on-screen death came in a 1999 episode ofBuffy the Vampire Slayer, where he was both turned into an undead vampire and later stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake. As previously mentioned, the most recent wasThe Last of Us, where he was beaten with a golf club.
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Joel Miller
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An important factor in Pedro Pascal’s reputation for dying is the caliber of characters that he plays. Many of his earliest deaths were minor charaters in guest appearances of long-running shows. However, his more recent deaths have been major figures.InGame of Thrones,Kingsman: The Golden Circle,Gladiator II, andThe Last of Us, Pascal played main characters who meet somewhat surprising ends. He’s had a few roles where his character was expected to die, such asDrive Away DollsorThe Equalizer 2, but Pascal is also more than capable of shocking audiences with an important death.
How Many Times Sean Bean Has Actually Died On-Screen
Though he has had a recent uptick in on-screen deaths, Pedro Pascal still can’t compare to Sean Bean. In 113 movie and TV appearances,Sean Bean has had 26 on-screen deathscompared to Pascal’s 11. Bean’s first on-screen death was in 1986’sCarravagio, where his character had his throat slit, and the most recent was in 2025’sThis City is Ours, when he was stabbed in the heart.Some of Bean’s most memorable on-screen deaths include Boromir inThe Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Ned Stark inGame of Thrones(which Pascal also died in), and Alec Trevelyan inGoldenEye.
Remarkably, Sean Bean also isn’t the actor whose characters die the most. According toCBR,Danny Trejo tops the list with 70 on-screen deaths, followed closely by Sir Christopher Lee with 63. In fact, Sean Bean doesn’t even make it to the top 10 list. His reputation for dying in films mostly comes from the weight of his characters' deaths: Boromir and Ned Stark both play massive roles in their respective stories, and their deaths influence everything long after they’re gone. Danny Trejo, by comparison, often played goons and other villains in action movies, and his characters' deaths were only there to pad fight sequences.
Pedro Pascal Has Already Given Us Some Of The Most Iconic Character Deaths
Oberyn, Joel, & A Few Other Pedro Pascal Deaths Still Stick With Audiences
Even though neither Pedro Pascal nor Sean Bean holds the record for the most on-screen deaths, they do have one major thing in common: their characters' deaths are usually iconic.Pascal has already been responsible for some truly shocking and absolutely heart-wrenching fates. Oberyn Martell’s death inGame of Thronescame as a shock both because of his importance to the story and his general likability. Likewise, Joel’s death inThe Last of Uswas utterly tragic both because of his importance to the first season and the effect it had on Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
Many of Pedro Pascal’s character deaths will stick with viewers for a long time. There are stillGame of Thronesfans who wish Oberyn would have lived longer over a decade after his death, and the same will almost surely be true of Joel inThe Last of Us.That’s the reason Pascal really might be the new Sean Bean: while neither of them have the most on-screen deaths, they both have some of the most memorable ones. It may take a few more roles, but ifPedro Pascalcontinues to play characters who die shocking and tragic deaths, he could very easily usurp Sean Bean’s reputation.
