Joel’s Last of Us brother Tommy was a kickass Terminator and Ghost Rider

Episode 6 Last of Us saw Pedro Pascal’s Joel reunite with his long-lost brother at a commune in Wyoming, completing the part of Joel’s cross-country trek that he was actually looking forward to. It was an emotional reunion — while the two brothers hadn’t seen each other in a very long time, they started bickering almost instantly, with Joel bitter at Tommy for being uncommunicative but also seemingly for being happy.

It was good to see Tommy again, because actor Gabriel Luna is a talented performer we don’t see enough of (his taken-aback reactionThe highlight of the episode comes from his wife telling him that they live within a commune and are therefore communists. And it’s a good time to remind you he was the best part of two other flawed franchise projects that had their moments: Terminator: Dark Fate SHIELD agents Season 4.

Luna was the main antagonist and the most entertaining character in otherwise dull films Dark Fate, called “Rev-9.” Rev-9 has the usual terrifying elements of most good Terminators — super-strength, super-speed, shapeshifting, a complete lack of care for how many humans it kills — with an added twist: Rev-9 can split the liquid metal and exoskeleton portions of its body into two distinct units, essentially duplicating itself when it needs two Rev-9s.

It is evident in this car chase. The exoskeleton Rev-9 stays with the truck, keeping the chase moving. Meanwhile the liquid metal Rev-9 launches into action.

The most memorable scene of the movie is when Luna’s Rev-9, posing as a Border Patrol agent, searches for Mackenzie Davis’ Grace Harper (basically this movie’s John Connor). Rev-9 uses his knife hands to slaughter Border Patrol agents, setting off a huge commotion. It’s a chaotic scene, but one where the action is still legible, and Luna’s intensity helps sell the terrifying nature of his character.

His turn as Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider, my favorite Gabriel Luna character in the series’ first half of Gabriel Luna is his. SHIELD agents Season 4 is not yet available. While it doesn’t rank highly on our ranked list of MCU shows, SHIELD agents It is easily my favorite Marvel TV show due to how bizarre it can get. What the show lacked in consistency, it more than made up for with outlandish character arcs and story beats — there are moments like the big season 1 twist, for sure, but as the seasons went on (and the show became more and more divorced from the MCU), it was willing to take some bigger swings.

One of these swings was introducing Gabriel Luna’s Robbie Reyes in season 4. Robbie, the fifth Ghost Rider in comics (and quite different than the Johnny Blaze portrayed by Nicolas Cage) is the one seen in the newly released. Marvel’s Midnight Suns. Robbie plays a mechanic killed by gangsters and then brought back by Ghost Rider to life. He now acts as a killer vigilante for his brother, who suffered paralysis in the attack. Robbie’s arc as a very violent vigilante matches well with what was also going on in the show at the time — protagonist Quake is also on the run as a (less violent) vigilante, and their differing approaches to justice give the show a little more to hang its hat on.

That’s all well and good, but it’s Luna who brings Robbie to life. It’s not always an easy position to be playing a character whose main role in the narrative is to provide room for the protagonist’s growth, but Luna was able to bring depth to what could have been a shallow character with his righteous anger, solemn eyes, and deep sense of care for his brother. He brings the same smoldering intensity that we saw in Rev-9, but with an uncertainty to his actions that comes from his character’s humanity and his commitment to his younger brother.

He’s also just really cool — the jacket is a great look, and Luna wears it well.

Hulu launched a Ghost Rider series in 2019, starring Luna and Robbie Reyes. Unfortunately, the show never saw production. We can only imagine a better future. He will however be appearing in the Netflix series on spying. FUBARThe movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Monica Barbaro, and portrays a father-daughter couple who find out that they are both secret CIA agents. Any new Gabriel Luna project is good news, so we’ll be looking forward to that one.

Season 4 of Marvel’sSHIELD AgentsIt is now available Disney Plus. Terminator: Dark FateYou can rent it digitally AmazonAnd Vudu.