The Last of Us: It’s Getting Painful – Series Creators Reveal How Joel Was Changed for the Series

• On January 15, 2023, the HBO series adaptation of the popular video game “The Last of Us” starts.
• To make the storyline and characters more realistic, the series creators gave Joel some physical ailments.
• The protagonist in the series is almost deaf in one ear and, appropriate for his age, has painful knees when standing up.

Joel (Pedro Pascal) has to clench his teeth in the upcoming HBO series The Last of Us. In order to best represent the video game character in the new show, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin had to make some changes to the popular protagonist. These are going to be bloody painful for Joel.

In the “The Last of Us” video games, Joel is the companion and caretaker of 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Together, the duo travel through a land infested with fungal zombies to bring Ellie to a safe place, because the girl could be the solution to the fungal infection. But Joel is not a superman, but a normal guy next door.

In order for that to come across in the series, the show makers, especially video game developer Druckmann, made a few adjustments to Joel. In an interview with the US magazine “The New YorkerDruckmann explains why.

We had a conversation about what physical toll Joel’s life might have had on him. So he’s hard of hearing from a gunshot in one side and his knees hurt every time he gets up. I know Tom Cruise (despite his age) can do anything. But I like my middle-aged middle-aged people.

That’s why the changes to Joel are working

So Joel is intentionally drawn from life on the show. That should give him more humanity.

Video games offer gamers an interactive way to experience a story. You slip into the role of the protagonist while playing and can determine the story with your decisions. However, a physical impairment could deceive the gaming experience. Because of this, even normal people in video games are downright superhuman.

With films and series, however, this works rather difficult. If a person has no weaknesses or problems, the story quickly becomes unbelievable. Such idealized characters are called Mary Sue in books, series and films. But no matter how perfect they appear, we hardly remember them. If you know one, you know them all.

In order not to turn Joel into a Mary Sue, which he would be as a perfect video game character, he received small flaws and problems from the series creators. Giving Joel physical limitations for his long journey as a survivor in a hostile world not only grounds the character but also increases the tension as he escorts Ellie in The Last of Us.

Regardless of Joel’s handicaps, the series otherwise seems to be very much based on the video game template. Sets were recreated exactly and actors were chosen to match the characters in the game.

On January 15, 2023 we will find out how well the video game fits into the series setting and how well the changes fit protagonist Joel.