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Troy Baker as Joel

Pictured: Troy Baker

CHARACTER · THE LAST OF US

Joel

Appears in
The Last of Us (2023)
Played by
Troy Baker

12 archived facts 3 topics

Joel is a character in the TV series The Last of Us (2023), played by Troy Baker.

12 Interesting Facts About Joel

Interesting Facts (9)

  1. #001

    The story shifted considerably during development. Tess was originally the main antagonist, chasing Joel and Ellie across the country after Joel accidentally caused her brother's death while saving Ellie from execution by a group of soldiers. Tess was also meant to capture Joel and then be killed by Ellie, but the developers scrapped this, feeling it unrealistic that Tess would pursue Joel with her band of smugglers for a whole year.

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  2. #002

    Pascal was in London when the producers called to confirm he had the part of Joel Miller. The next day he had no memory of the call: expecting to go to sleep after a long day and not anticipating a call that late, he had taken an Ambien beforehand.

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  3. #003

    The recurring guitar song Joel first plays for Ellie in the prologue is "Future Days" by the Seattle band Pearl Jam. The album it appears on, "Lightning Bolt", came out on October 11, 2013, two weeks after the Cordyceps outbreak begins in the game's universe, though the song itself was released on YouTube a month earlier.

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  4. #004

    The comic books Ellie reads and Joel collects throughout the game are made by DarkHorse, a real comics and graphic novel publisher. Turn a comic over and zoom in, and you will find their web address, darkhorse.com, at the bottom beneath the barcode.

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  5. #005

    After traveling a short way into the Spring chapter, you can find a poster with giraffes on it, headlined with an announcement of the "new arrival to the zoo", before Joel and Ellie encounter the animals.

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  6. #006

    Uncharted 2: Among Thieves included co-operative gameplay sections pairing Nathan Drake with his Tibetan ally Tenzin. Their interactions proved an engaging way to tell the story, which gave Naughty Dog the idea of developing Joel and Ellie through similar mechanics.

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  7. #007
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    HBO ordered 10 episodes but ultimately merged the first two. The opener originally cut from Joel calmly burning an infected boy's body to Ellie in chains. Realizing this would end the premiere on too bleak and cryptic a note, all the more so with Sarah's death so recent, HBO brought forward the earliest Joel and Ellie interactions to balance it.

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  8. #008
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    The game's final shot shows Ellie walking away from the farmhouse, where she has left her last memory of Joel, his guitar, presumably never to return. She is finally "leaving him behind" and moving on.

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  9. #009
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    During the prologue, when Joel interrupts Ellie as she draws, she can be heard listening to Shawn James' "Through The Valley", the song Ellie performed in the game's reveal trailer.

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Production Story (1)

  1. #010
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Joel's performance for Ellie is adapted from the epilogue of The Last of Us: One Night Live, a stage production of the original game staged for a single night in July 2014. That epilogue was the only segment never recorded, though audience members described it afterwards. In One Night Live the scene unfolds somewhat differently, including a moment where Joel says Tommy has fixed him up with a woman named Esther. Naughty Dog later said Joel was initially written to have a girlfriend in Part II, but that thread, along with other material, was cut, which produced the revised scene.

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Life & Family (2)

  1. #011

    Pedro Pascal, who does not play video games, watched his nephew play the opening of the first game because he lacked the skill to do it himself. He called Joel "so impressive" but worried about copying the games too closely, so he chose to "create a healthy distance" and let the showrunners settle the characterization.

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  2. #012
    Contains a major spoiler — show

    Ellie's puppy was one element left out of the game. Early concept art depicts Ellie carrying her dog after it is hurt. The plan for Joel and Ellie to adopt a puppy was dropped altogether. Another scrapped idea had Ellie using her fungal immunity to cross spore-filled areas, with players controlling her during those sections.

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