Gabriel Luna Finds Light in the Darkness

The last time I spoke with actor Gabriel Luna was in 2019. We met when he was in New York to promote the release of Terminator: Dark Fate, in which he starred as the Rev-9 model alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger. “Goodness gracious, so much has happened since then,” laughs Luna.

Luna certainly has been busy—it’s been a fruitful stretch for his career, starring in films like The Astronaut with Kate Mara, and reuniting with Schwarzenegger twice in TV shows FUBAR and Secret Levels. When we connected this time, Luna was back at home in Los Angeles for a brief moment, in between a worldwide press tour for his role as Tommy in season two of The Last of Us. “I don’t know if they’ve heard about this little show called The Last of Us,” jokes Luna. “We got to let them know about it.”

HBO’s television series The Last of Us is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed video game franchise, developed by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. The highly lauded first season quickly became one of the network’s most popular shows and earned eight Emmy Awards. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where a deadly fungal infection risks turning humans into “infected,” the show follows Ellie (Bella Ramsey), an immune teenage girl, as she navigates this dangerous landscape. In season two, Ellie must figure out how best to respond when her relationship with her father figure, Joel (Pedro Pascal), takes a heartbreaking turn as the consequences of his actions catch up with him. As Joel’s younger brother, Tommy must find a way to confront his own pain while weighing how to support Ellie as well.

Luna recalls feeling excited when he was first approached to play Tommy, given his affinity for the storytelling. The Austin native says that while he had been intrigued by the game, as it’s set in his hometown, he didn’t undertake a full playthrough until just before he was cast. “I just got completely wrapped up and swept up in the story and forgot what I was playing the game for. I loved it,” he says. “I saw who Tommy was and the spirit of the character and his humor and how light-hearted he is when you first meet them and how carefree he is, and to see how far of a journey he goes away from that free spirit, carefree-type attitude. The events of this story weigh so heavily on everyone and drag a lot of these characters down into the darkness.”

In season two, Tommy firmly establishes himself in a leadership role at the survivors’ compound in Jackson, Wyoming, which makes it difficult when Ellie approaches him with the idea of revenge—Tommy is torn between his responsibility to the community and a desire for vengeance. “In a world where people are fighting and dying in this horrific, endless wheel of violence, at some point, we have to learn forgiveness. It’s about learning the lesson of forgiveness, but at extreme costs, at the forfeiture of your humanity in some instances,” says Luna. “So what is it worth? What is it worth to go down this path of violence? We’re living in a world where there are plenty of examples of this, of these conflicts in the West Bank and Ukraine, where people are fighting and arguing about who started it, when it started. You can die from a lack of breath trying to have this conversation. At some point, it has to end, and that’s what the story is about. Maybe there is justice to be delivered, but also maybe there is nothing but life to be gained by just letting it go.”

Ironically, for being such a thematically dark show, Luna says there was “a lot of silliness” on set. “The whole cast was full of musical people, so there was a lot of that going on. It helped to keep us together at the same time, keep things light, and keep everybody out of that heaviness, but never really pulling us away from the subject matter to the point where we’re not engaging with it,” he says. “The music was the fibers that connected all of it. There was a lot of fun happening. It was very hard work, but we all felt blessed to be there.”

Reflecting on his journey as Tommy and his time working on The Last of Us, Luna has nothing to express but appreciation for every part of the process. “I don’t think anything else can quite compare with that up to this point in my career,” he says. “Just the love across the board with the people, with us, the creators who make it, the audience, the critical response—everybody’s shown a lot of love. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that before. Not sure I ever will again.”

As for his next project, Luna joins the cast of Amazon’s The Terminal List alongside Chris Pratt as Freddie Strain, a Navy SEAL sniper and family man. It not only marks a reunion with Ray Mendoza, a former Navy SEAL with whom he worked on the second season of True Detective, but also a return to a Schwarzenegger connection. “This all came about because Chris and I were talking about this at Arnold’s Christmas dinner about three years ago,” says Luna. “He’s just a stand-up guy and a man of his word. He said, ‘You know, I have this part that I would love you to play. I think you’d be great for it.’”

Since starring in Terminator: Dark Fate, Luna’s relationship with Schwarzenegger as a mentor has only grown deeper. “I love him, and he really has become that father figure. When cool stuff happens, he’s one of the first people I call,” says Luna. Now, the familial connection extends to the whole family. “We all support each other, which is cool. I don’t know how often that happens in this business that you really stay tied to people,” says Luna. “But for me, those personal relationships are the most valuable to me. And I’m just thankful and privileged to have him as this resource and this encouraging entity in my life.”

The Last of Us continues on Sundays on HBO.