WATCH: Pedro Pascal is Living His Best Life in ‘SNL’ Hosting Promo

Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) is gearing up for his debut on Saturday Night Live this weekend. NBC just released the first promo for his episode, and it’s easy to see that it has the potential to be one of the best of the season.

The preview begins with Pascal standing on the SNL stage looking out at the empty theater. He’s contemplating how he got to this pinnacle of his career. “Little Pedro Pascal from Santiago, Chile, hosting Saturday Night Live,” he says. “Wild.”

Suddenly, Pascal hears clattering coming from backstage and walks over to investigate. “Hello?” he says as he searches out the source of the sounds in the darkness with a flashlight in his hand. He wonders if maybe it’s SNL creator Lorne Michaels. “Lorne?”

It’s not Lorne, however. A clicker from Pascal’s hit HBO series The Last of Us appears in front of him. A clicker is an infected human who is in the third stage of contagion where the Cordyceps brain infection is exposed. Gross.

Pascal quickly grabs a hammer lying nearby, steps up to the clicker, and raises the tool above his head ready to kill it. Then, the lights turn on. “What are you doing you psycho?!” SNL cast member Sarah Sherman yells. Pascal seems confused. Sherman explains to him that the clicker is actually “Matt, our new cast member.”

First-year SNL cast member Molly Kearney adds: “Not cool, Mr. Pascal.” Sherman then continues to berate Pascal for almost killing one of their colleagues. “Listen, I know it’s your first time hosting, but a little advice: Don’t hit the cast members with a hammer, you maniac!”

Although Sherman and Kearney didn’t think it was the “best impression” Pascal could’ve made, fans of the actor seemed to think the opposite on social media. “The Coldplay x Pedro Pascal SNL episode will be so good I can tell already,” one Twitter user posted.

Other fans joined in the excitement.

Even The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann took notice of Pascal’s preview for the show. “Life is getting more and more surreal,” he tweeted with emojis of a mushroom (fungus) and hammer.

We’ll find out if Pedro Pascal can survive hosting duties when SNL airs on February 4, 2023, at 11:30 p.m. EST on NBC.