Joel Miller is one of the most beloved characters inThe Last of Us. As the protagonist ofThe Last of Us Part 1, many fans are excited to see how Pedro Pascal will portray him in the upcoming HBO adaptation, coming in the middle of January.
There are many directions thatThe Last of Uson HBO could take Joelthat the games didn’t, all without changing much from the source. In fact, there are a lot of aspects of Joel’s life that have yet to get the spotlight that would make more sense to reveal through the HBO series than in the video games.
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HBO Could Explore Joel’s Life Before The Apocalypse
Because the video game needed to balance story and gameplay,The Last of Usbegan on the night of the outbreak, getting players hooked in right away. However, this may not be the best place to begin the HBO adaptation. Instead, it would be nice to see Joel’s life before the outbreak – parenting Sarah, going to work, and spending time with Tommy before their lives took a turn for the worse. While Joel’s life before the apocalypse shouldn’t be explored for too long, this change would allow fans and newcomers tounderstand Joel and his perspective on Ellie more.
Joel’s life after losing Sarah should also be explored more in the HBO series. The video game immediately jumps into the future after Sarah was killed, withJoel and Tommysimply mentioning some things that happened to them in the years between. The pain that Joel felt from losing his daughter and the things that he and Tommy did in order to survive should be expanded upon in the early episodes of HBO’sThe Last of Us.
Fans May See How Joel Met Tess And Bill
After the time skip in the video games, players got to know Joel as someone who rarely got close to others, keeping a distance from those he could care about due to his fear of losing them. However, he did have a couple of friends. Both Bill andTess played important roles in Joel and Ellie’s journeyin the first game. Despite both of them being fan favorites, however, not much is known about the friendship they had withPart 1’s main character.
It’s already been revealed that Bill will play a bigger role in the HBO adaptation, so there will likely be more scenes of him spending time with Joel. Perhaps fans will be able to see how the two of them met each other, as well as Tess. Joel’s friendships will hopefully give fans a better understanding of what his daily life was like prior to meeting Ellie and going on a journey to findthe Fireflies inThe Last of Us.
A Second Season Can Explore Joel’s Life After Part 1
While HBO’sThe Last of Usisn’t on to a second season just yet, there are a lot of possible directions it could take. One of these possibilities is showing what Joel’s life was like when he and Ellie adjusted to being part of a community.The Last of Us Part 2faced criticism for Joel’s role; he acted very different than he did in the original game, as he had developed off-screen.However, seeing as how the HBO adaptation can focus more on character development and story, there’s no reason to not show how Joel changed throughout the years in between the two games.
The Last of Us Part 2did feature flashbacks that showed some of the things that Joel and Ellie had done during their simpler days. It would be great to see episodes in which they go to the dinosaur and space museum that they visited, as well as the music shop they tried to go to. To make Joel a more compelling character in the HBO series than he already is in the games, all aspects of his life should be explored.
The Last of Uspremieres May 26, 2025 on HBO and HBO Max.
