Joel Miller is a character in the video game series The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. He is portrayed by Troy Baker through performance capture in the games, and by Pedro Pascal in the television adaptation. In the first game, The Last of Us (2013), Joel serves as the main protagonist and is tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. He also appears briefly in the downloadable content campaign The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014). Joel is killed in The Last of Us Part II (2020) by
Joel Miller is a character in the video game series The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. He is portrayed by Troy Baker through performance capture in the games, and by Pedro Pascal in the television adaptation. In the first game, The Last of Us (2013), Joel serves as the main protagonist and is tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. He also appears briefly in the downloadable content campaign The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014). Joel is killed in The Last of Us Part II (2020) by
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Joel Miller is a character in the video game series The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. He is portrayed by Troy Baker through performance capture in the games, and by Pedro Pascal in the television adaptation. In the first game, The Last of Us (2013), Joel serves as the main protagonist and is tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States in an attempt to create a potential cure for an infection to which Ellie is immune. He also appears briefly in the downloadable content campaign The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014). Joel is killed in The Last of Us Part II (2020) by a woman named Abby, whose father he murdered in the first game, prompting Ellie to seek revenge.
Joel was created by Neil Druckmann, the creative director and writer of The Last of Us. The character's casting was extensive, as his relationship with Ellie was imperative to the game; it was the central focus of the first game's development, with all other elements developed around it. Baker inspired aspects of Joel's personality, making the character more emotional than initially pitched. Druckmann wanted players, especially parents, to relate to Joel through his bonding with Ellie. He considered the character morally complex. For Part II, Druckmann felt that Joel's character arc was complete after the original, and his death was a core part of the game's development.
The character has been well-received by critics, including his chemistry with Ellie and the likability and complexity of the character. Baker's performance in both games was highly praised and received numerous awards and nominations. Pascal's performance in the television series was similarly praised and awarded.
The development team of The Last of Us spent more time selecting the actor for Joel than Ellie, as the chemistry between the two characters was imperative to the game. After Troy Baker and Ellie actress Ashley Johnson played alongside each other, the team realized that the former perfectly fit the role of Joel, despite the actor's young age. Creative director Neil Druckmann attributed Baker's voice and movement to the team's choice of casting him. Baker contributed greatly to the development of the character; for example, he convinced Druckmann that Joel would care for Tess due to his loneliness. When designing Joel's physical appearance, the team tried to make him look "flexible enough" to allow for him to appear as both a "ruthless operator in the underground of a quarantined city" as well as a "caring father figure to Ellie". His appearance was aimed to evoke "rural Americana", referencing values of self-reliance and ingenuity when facing hardship and deprivation. The team experimented with his appearance to determine his age in the game.
When writing Joel, Druckmann initially took inspiration from Josh Brolin's portrayal of Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men (2007), which he saw as "very quiet, very cool under pressure". However, Baker's interpretation of Joel as a more emotional person evolved the character in a different way. Ultimately, the narrative became an exploration of how willing a father is to save a child; initially, Joel is willing to sacrifice himself, before evolving where he is willing to sacrifice his friends, until finally feeling that he would sacrifice all of humanity in order to save Ellie.
Druckmann felt that players, specifically parents, would be able to relate to Joel's character and his bonding with Ellie. Baker believes that Joel discovers morality throughout the game's narrative, working out the difference between loss and sacrifice, and his true personality begins to show. Druckmann became intrigued by players who discussed Joel's morality, distinguishing him as a hero or villain; Druckmann felt that Joel was only "a complex person who's made good and bad decisions", but allowed it to be open to interpretation. When auditioning for the role, Baker read a phrase on the character sheet that stated Joel had "few moral lines left to cross", which became the "anchor point" to the character for him. Baker found great difficulty in filming the game's prologue, which features scenes with Joel and his daughter Sarah, portrayed by Hana Hayes. Upon later viewing of the first day of footage from the scene, Druckmann felt that it could still be improved. When filming the scene again, Druckmann explained to Baker how to perform it, and felt that it was the best take upon doing so. Though Baker initially found the take too "mechanical", he retroactively realized that he had been trying to impress audiences by his acting, and that it was "not what the scene needed".
Druckmann felt that Joel's character arc was complete after the first game. Joel's death was a core part of the narrative structure of The Last of Us Part II from early in development; Druckmann considered it one of the most difficult to write, rehearse, and shoot. Though it initially caused some internal resistance, the team felt compelled when more of the narrative was built out. An early version of Joel's death scene had him utter "Sarah", his daughter's name, until Baker suggested that he should remain silent. While Sarah's death in the first game intended to evoke sadness, Joel's death aims to elicit anger. Ellie was originally absent during the scene, and was to be informed by Joel's brother Tommy, but Druckmann felt that witnessing the death through Ellie's perspective emphasized the anger of the player. He wanted it to be portrayed as "gross, unceremonious, and humiliating" instead of heroic; it was originally more gruesome, but later toned down as the gore was not crucial to the scene. He predicted that it might lead to negative reactions, but felt it was necessary to tell the story; he particularly felt that Naughty Dog's notability in the industry gave it the opportunity to take risks that other developers can not. In an earlier version of the scene, Abby stabbed Joel in the back and twisted the knife to paralyze him; however, as kni
