Why Joel Had To Die In The Last Of Us, According To Co-Creator Neil Druckmann - SlashFilm
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Television Drama Shows ByNina Starner May 19, 2025 11:00 pm EST Liane Hentscher/HBO This article contains spoilers for "The Price," the penultimate episode of season 2 of "The Last of Us."Stop reading right now if you haven't watched it — spoilers lie ahead!It feels impossible to imagine a world where Joel Miller, the original protagonist of the 2013 video game "The Last of Us" and the 2023 HBO television adaptation (played by Troy Miller and Pedro Pascal, respectively), is still alive. What I mean by this is that, in both the game and show, Joelsort of has to die to drive the narrative for his surrogate daughter Ellie, portrayed by Ashley Johnson in the original games and Bella Ramsey in the show. According to game creator and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, though, thereis a world where Joel maybe survives. However, as he explained to Alan Sepinwall for Rolling Stone, he and his co-showrunner Craig Mazin ultimately decided against Joel surviving a vengeful attack from Abby Anderson (Ka...