The Last of Us shocked fans with a surprise cameo from none other than Josh Peck.
The former Nickelodeon child star, now 38, made a guest appearance in the latest installment titled “Day One.” In the episode’s opening flashback scene, a group of FEDRA (Federal Disaster Response Agency) soldiers are shown riding through the Seattle quarantine zone in 2018.
Peck’s loudmouth soldier, Janowitz, goes on to recount a story about another soldier named Greenberg. “You guys know me. I’m f***ing easy on voters,” he says. “So I got three voters against the wall. I caught them red-handed disseminating pamphlets.”
Asked if they were WLF (Washington Liberation Front) pamphlets, Janowitz says he thought so, but they ended up turning out to be “some religious crap. But I didn’t f***ing know that.”
“So I call for backup. Guess who shows up?” he asks, with the other soldiers responding in unison: “Greenberg!”
“He pulls up; he gets out of his truck. He’s in a f***ing mood. I can already tell,” Janowitz recalls. “And he’s all like, ‘What are you f***ing calling for? What, you can’t handle three voters? What’d these f***ing p***ies even do?’ I say, ‘I caught them out here disseminating.’ And he goes, ‘What?! You f***ing perverts are here jerking out and splooging on my streets?’”
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After one of the voters attempts to explain the word “disseminating,” Janowitz remembers: “Greenberg smacks his f***ing forehead against the wall and there goes his teeth, just blood f***ing everywhere. Greenberg goes, ‘No one asked you, jizz boy.’”
His insensitive story angers his sergeant, Isaac Dixon (played by Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright), who proceeds to jump out of the armored vehicle before throwing a grenade into the back, killing Janowitz and the rest of the soldiers.
Peck’s brief, yet tragic appearance left viewers the most shocked.
“Yo, Josh Peck in TLOU. Never thought I’d see the day,” one wrote on X, while a second added: “That totally caught me off guard.”
“Josh Peck was a fantastic surprise— Can’t wait to see what’s next,” a third said, with a fourth hailing Peck’s performance as “explosive.”
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“From Nickelodeon to the apocalypse – Josh Peck’s range is officially wild,” another noted.
Peck is best known for his lead role as Josh in Nickelodeon’s popular early oughts sitcom Drake & Josh. He also appeared in several episodes of the network’s The Amanda Show, starring Amanda Bynes.
HBO’s The Last of Us is an adaptation of the popular video game and stars Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal. It follows the dangerous aftermath of a deadly virus that ravaged most of civilization.
The current second season has left fans and critics impressed, with The Independent’s Nick Hilton awarding it four stars. “Is The Last of Us a great TV show or just a great adaptation of a video game? In truth, it sits somewhere between these positions,” he wrote. “The world has ended over and over, on screens big and small, but it has rarely been as plausible — or compelling — as the barbaric wasteland in the second season of The Last of Us.”
New episodes of The Last of Us season two air Sundays on Max.
