Pedro Pascal Penned A Tribute To The Last Of Us’ Nico Parker, And His Thoughts On His ‘First Daughter’ Are Making Me Emotional
Posted October 11, 2025
Nico Parker is only 20 years old, but she’s well on her way to solidifying herself as a star. She made her film debut in the live-action Dumbo in 2019, and from there, she’s been flying high. Literally, flying too, because she’s one of the stars of the highly successful and
well-reviewed live-action How to Train Your Dragon. Now, she’s being recognized as a rising star, and her The Last of Us co-star, Pedro Pascal, penned a sweet tribute to his “first daughter” that’s making me emotional.
As I alluded to, Nico Parker was named one of the World’s Most Influential Rising Stars by Time. So, to prove that, Pedro Pascal penned the tribute to her. He started by gushing:
Nico Parker is my first daughter. The one you learn from, the one who shows you patience and humor no matter the moment, no matter the day. She moves through a world that is stunned by her beauty, and if and when anyone gets past it, they are met with an intelligence, talent and sensitivity that can vanish any picture you’re trying to hold onto. You will never catch up with Nico, but she will wait for you.
Well, that’s the sweetest thing ever. It’s also so meaningful considering who the roles they played in The Last of Us cast. When it comes to that show, we spend most of our time talking about Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie. However, Parker played Pascal’s on-screen biological daughter,
Sarah, who tragically dies at the start of the series (which you can stream with an HBO Max subscription).
While she wasn’t on screen for long, she made a huge impact on the video game adaptation and clearly on Pedro Pascal. Continuing his tribute, the
Fantastic Four: First Steps actor wrote:
I ask that she keep going, that she keeps showing the world how it’s done. Thank you, Nico, for being my first daughter. I will always be here, I will always protect you, just like you do me.
I’m sorry, but I simply cannot handle this. It’s far too sweet, heartfelt and further proof that both Pedro Pascal and Nico Parker are class acts.
However, to prove that note about Parker further, let’s talk about everything she’s doing to get this kind of acknowledgment. Along with
How to Train Your Dragon, she has another project on the 2025 movie schedule called Poetic License. She’s also going to be filming those flying scenes on dragons again, because the
live-action How to Train Your Dragon 2 is in the works, and she will return as Astrid. And, she’ll be diving into the horror genre eventually, too, by way of Osgood Perkins’
The Young People.
Really, her work and what’s to come speak for itself. However, Pascal’s tribute amplifies it and tells us about the person Nico Parker is. According to
The Mandalorian star, she’s intelligent, sensitive, and utterly stunning.
So, if you weren’t on board the Nico Parker train yet, you should be now. While I wipe my tears over this sweet tribute from her
Last of Us co-star and on-screen dad, you can see them in the show over on HBO Max. Meanwhile, we’ll keep you updated on the actress’s growing career, and I’ll also be hoping that she and Pascal do get the chance to collaborate again someday.
Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows
Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to Fire Country, and she's enjoyed every second of it.
Daryl & Carol's "Rebirth" In Season 3 Of TWD Spinoff Broken Down By Bosses
As it draws closer to closing the spinoff out, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 is evolving its titular character, alongside fan-favorite Carol Peletier. Beginning in 2023, the ongoing installment of the AMC zombie franchise has followed Norman Reedus' eponymous character as he ends up in Europe and ventures through the continent in search of a way to return home, while also helping various survivors along the way.
After her return as a main character in season 2, Daryl Dixon season 3 sees Daryl and Carol now venturing together into London and Spain after a sailboat acquired in the former is swept up in a storm. The duo subsequently become involved in
Solaz del Mar, a community of survivors who are lorded over by El Alcázar, a fortress led by supposedly the last of the Spanish monarchy, Guillermo Torres.
As the season has progressed, Daryl and Carol have found themselves particularly wrapped up in the star-crossed relationship between
Solaz inhabitants Roberto and Justina, who yearn to escape the annual offering of women to El Alcázar in order to protect their relationship. Daryl Dixon season 3 episode 5, "Limbo", saw the titular character racing to Barcelona in an effort to save Justina after she's captured by Guillermo's soldiers, while Carol returns to
Solaz in order to help a badly wounded Roberto recover.
Both prior to and after the season kicked off, Owen Danoff interviewed franchise bosses Greg Nicotero and Scott Gimple, as well as showrunner David Zabel and executive producer Dan Percival, for
ScreenRant to discuss The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3. The group opened up about the season's cultural and historical influences, particularly Spaghetti Westerns, as well as Daryl and Carol's "
rebirth" and building towards the show's final season.
Daryl & Carol's Evolution Is All About Discovering What Home Means To Them
With the pair having 11 seasons of story in which they were at the center, Zabel certainly understands that, with each new
Daryl Dixon season, it's important he and his writing team are "not letting [Daryl and Carol] stagnate". As the showrunner describes, his goal from the beginning has been "
continuing to evolve the characters", regardless of if they're new or "have been on the air for so long".
Zabel recalls his original conversations with Reedus in the early days of the
Walking Dead spinoff, as well as McBride when she returned for season 2, in which they discussed what could be "new ways to reveal things about them", while also being careful that new reveals "
don't contradict the history that we know". Some of the more notable have included touching more on Daryl's childhood and family, including paying a visit to his grandfather's grave from World War II in Normandy in season 1.
When it came to landing on Daryl's season 3 arc, Zabel felt that the best path forward was "really examining what home means to him", particularly given he has been on the move for so much of his life. "
We start to get glimpses of in these flashbacks and that is feeding into his anxiety or his confusion about 'What is home, what am I trying to do? All I do is run and fight'
," the showrunner explained.
This also leads to Daryl having "regrets about the past", which further influences his decisions in helping characters like Roberto and Justina. As for Carol, though, Zabel says she is "looking towards the future", affirming that the two "love each other" while sharing that their "very different headspaces" won't impact their dynamic or how close they are going forwards.
One thing that comes from Carol's arc in Daryl Dixon season 3 is her growing closer to Roberto's father, Antonio, giving her something of a romance for the first time in a while in the Walking Dead franchise after living through trauma in prior ones. Calling season 2 "her breaking through a wall of inherited trauma", Zabel and Percival describe the season 3 premiere, in which they emerge from the Chunnel, as a "rebirth" for her.
It allows her to sort of see the world anew and to have a lighter feeling about what the possibilities are and about the future.
Describing her early interactions with Antonio as going "hand-in-hand" with this newfound optimism, Zabel feels that he and Carol have "a simpatico" that is growing through the course of season 3. Percival also attributes a fair amount of this storyline to McBride, as he recalled her being "very nervous" about this arc considering everything Carol's endured over the years.
"She was very nervous about how far she can take her character, how far she can fall for somebody or allow herself to feel these things," Percival explained. "So, it's an exciting journey for all of us to push the envelope of where the character has been and where they can go. And I think when we're asking ourselves those questions, we're probably doing the right thing."
Season 3's Leper Colony Was One Of TWD's Most Challenging Things To Pull Off
In his journey to Barcelona to find and save Justina from El Alcázar, episode 5 saw Daryl attacked by a group of bandits known as the Buzzards and subsequently helped by the Limbos, a colony of people affected by leprosy living in Belchite who had their water stolen by the Buzzards. A sympathetic Daryl offers to help, effectively killing the Buzzards and taking the group's train, pulled by a group herd of walkers.
Despite being with the franchise from the start, and seeing everything from the war between Alexandria and Negan's Saviors, to a decaying Manhattan and New York City in Walking Dead: Dead City, Nicotero described the Daryl Dixon season 3 episode as being "really challenging", particularly due to the walker-pulled train. "I remember reading the script for that, just thinking, 'Wow, that's crazy'," Nicotero recalled.
As he dove into the episode's script, co-written by Zabel and series vet Jason Richman, Nicotero became "excited" at the various possibilities the storyline presented. For starters, the franchise boss felt it "gave us a whole new visual palette of prosthetics to create all the lepers", which he felt blended in nicely with the world of the season.
But, more importantly, he recognized there was a heavy thematic purpose to the Limbos' existence in the post-apocalyptic world of The Walking Dead. "There's no medicine, there are no treatments," Nicotero denoted. "But it also just feels so distinctly Spanish. You would not have been able to shoot that anywhere else".
Nicotero went on to praise how the storyline and effects work "immerses the audience" in the world of the Limbos, something he feels "we've been very successful" at doing across all seven Walking Dead shows. He also cites it as "my favorite episode of season 3", praising director Paco Cabezas — who previously helmed an episode of Fear the Walking Dead — for his work behind the camera.
"He did a great job and brought a really unique energy to it," Nicotero beamed. "There was a lot going on with the train and Daryl fighting the guy on the train and all that kind of stuff. We could have spent another two weeks shooting that sequence for what we wanted to do, but it's still a TV show, even though it looks much bigger than that."
What Else We Learned About Daryl Dixon Season 3 & Beyond From The Group
ScreenRant: I loved the glimpse at London. How dare you do that to Stephen Merchant?
David Zabel: He could have been in every episode, but his agents were driving too hard to bargain. That's the problem. That's what happens, man. No, we love Stephen, we love him. He was great.
Dan Percival: He loved the fact it was one episode as well — this contained narrative.
David Zabel: Yeah, he liked that. But he was great. It was one of my true joys of season 3 to be in a room with Dan directing, [and] with the three of them doing those scenes. I just thought, "Wow, what a great trio," because a lot of it is finding great people to bounce up against Norman and Melissa as actors. Finding a dynamic that's going to be interesting and feel fresh and stuff. And putting Stephen in the room with the two of them and letting those three do all those scenes in the apartment was just so great. I was like, "Yes." Sometimes it works out the way you're hoping, and sometimes it works out even better. That one was even better.
ScreenRant: Going through the France storyline, obviously it felt like there were a lot of revolutionary themes, and here it seems like you pulled from the history of the Spanish Civil War and stuff like that. I'm curious how you chose what parts of Spain's history you wanted to bring into this season.
David Zabel: I mean, we did a deep dive. We had two Spanish writers in the room with us. We only have five writers, so 40% of the staff is Spanish, and we are diligent students also. So we did a deep dive, and we were looking at the history of Spain and what caught our attention, and what we thought were really dynamic things, and how those things could sort of present themselves again, meaning how the past comes back in the present. So we were just looking and looking at the things that were not like what we had done, so in France, there were a lot of World War II references, there was sort of the resistance movement and a bunch of things in France.
We were like, "Well, what's different about Spain that's really singular for Spain", and the Spanish Civil War was one. France had a monarchy, but the history is quite different, and we hadn't talked about that in France. So the idea of a new monarchy was interesting to us in terms of how it would work. And obviously, not really Spanish history per se, but the spaghetti Westerns, which I grew up on and love, were largely made in Spain. That intrigued me and all of us, and seemed to lend itself to the kind of story we wanted to tell. And to the kind of characters that Daryl and Carol are, especially in a story where it's strangers coming to a town, which is a classic kind of setup for a great western.
Dan Percival: You can't be in Spain, you can't be in any European country without the aspects of its history surrounding you. The whole time you go to a community like Sepulveda, which is where Solaz was set, the center of that town probably hasn't literally changed for 500 years. And the town has been there for 2,000. And the people who lived there are probably genetically related to the people who lived there 2000 years ago, almost certainly. So the landscape, the history just filters through everything, and I think it's hard to separate the influences. The influences are just there all the time. The Civil War was just one of the more recent bits of fascism, and there is still a monarchy here.
David Zabel: And Medievalism, feudalism. We were doing a deep dive. We were like, "What's the history of feudalism in Spain", which is quite different than France and the way that Spain is a more fractured country than France. And that fed in —
Dan Percival: More subtle and politically volatile, in a way, whereas the Spanish, we were able to film, as you'll know later, in the Alhambra, the Moors ran an empire here for 700 years.
David Zabel: And something we haven't talked about at all is also, for example, Spain has all these languages. France is basically French. Spain has all these languages. We tried to be true to it in that way. There's a little Galician when we're up in Galicia, there's Catalan. We tried to be fairly truthful in that, which is complicated for us. Like, "Oh, we're not just doing Spanish and English now. We're doing a couple other things."
Dan Percival: And the influences, there's a fallback loop as you're filming here with the actors, with the cast, with the locations where you are that you bring in all those influences all the time.
Scott Gimple: There's just history everywhere you turn, and whether that be literal history or cinematic history, many of the spaghetti westerns were shot either very close or around the locations that we were making the show, and this show conveyed that it absorbed that, or it certainly influenced that. And you can feel that Sergio Leone in this season, especially in one of the episodes.
Greg Nicotero: Even if you look at the poster art, the poster art emulates the Once Upon a Time in the West poster.
Scott Gimple: What's the log line on there? It's straight up Spaghetti Western, which I can't remember what it is. Boy, it'd be great if I could tell you that.
Check out our previous Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon season 3 interview with Greg Nicotero at San Diego Comic-Con 2025!
