Druckmann and Mazin Respond to Whether We’ll See More of Joel in the Series

The Last of Us, despite the occasional criticisms, has been a major hit for HBO and is one of the most intriguing series we’ve seen recently, as well as one of the most notable video game adaptations we’ve seen.

And while there are many elements to talk about, Pedro Pascal’s performance as Joel has been one of the series’ best moments, which is why interest in the character is very, very high.

Of course, Joel meets a tragic fate in the series, as those who’ve played the games already know, but despite that, many people want to see more of him in the future, which we can understand.

Pascal’s Joel is not just a fan-favorite character from the series; he has been a fan-favorite character from the games as well, which is why his loss hit so hard when it happened, first in the game, and now in the series.

But, despite Joel being dead, fans want more of him, and these demands were discussed at the recently held The Last of Us season 2 finale press conference, which was attended by co-creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin.

During the conference, the moderator conveyed a question about whether we will ever see Joel’s past explored in detail, seeing how we know some information, but no details about what had happened to Joel before the events of the main series.

Druckmann and Mazin laughed at the question, but they also gave us a very interesting reply. “I think it’s… It’s always good to leave some things a mystery, to let the audience use their imagination to fill in the blanks. Obviously, every once in a while, we tap into those mysteries when they’re important for the story we’re telling here. So, I guess, never say never. I mean…,” Druckman said.

“I mean, we- we definitely went pretty far down the road of at least showing a moment from that time period. So, I think Neil’s right, we’d never say never. And this season was tricky because it was so driven by this traumatic event: Joel dies,” Mazin continued. “And once Joel dies, it is so big and impactful that you don’t have quite as much room to sort of wander down some side streets, you really need to stick to what happens as a result of that, as well as what happened leading up to it. But I think next season, we probably will have a bit more flexibility. And you know, we love- we love a side trip to Indonesia, it’s one of our favourite things to do, so maybe- maybe a side trip to, you know, Joel and Tommy terrorizing the countryside, we’ll never know.”

“Look, I wouldn’t have guessed we would have a short story about Joel’s dad before we wrote the season, so there you go. You can’t predict these things,” Druckmann concluded, giving the fans hope that we might get to see more of Joel’s story at one point.

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