‘Never say never’: The Last of Us writers say Joel could return in new seasons

[Ed. note: This story contains major spoilers through The Last of Us season 2 finale.]

By now, it’s hopefully not much of a spoiler to know that gaming’s gruffest dad suffers an untimely death early on in the latest season of HBO’s The Last of Us. You’d think, like the games, that this would mean the end of Joel as a character in the show. But according to the showrunners, you can’t rule it out entirely.

In a press event held late last week, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin sat down for an hour to talk shop about the season 2 finale of The Last of Us. During the Q&A portion of the event, Druckmann and Mazin were asked if the show would ever explore the events between the death of Joel’s daughter Sarah and the time period before he meets Ellie. While the duo initially demurred, both conceded that it wasn’t out of the question in its entirety.

“It’s always good to leave some things a mystery, to let the audience use their imagination to fill in the blanks,” Druckmann says. “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.”

Mazin repeated that they’d “never” say the show wouldn’t explore more of Joel, but in the case of season 2, going down that narrative path was a complicated proposition.

“And this season was tricky because it was so driven by this traumatic event: Joel dies,” Mazin muses. “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 a side trip to Indonesia, it’s one of our favorite things to do, so maybe- maybe a side trip to, you know, Joel and Tommy terrorizing the countryside, we’ll never know.”

Druckman chimed in by stating that they never would have guessed that the show would end up exploring Joel’s childhood, as it did in episode 6 of season 2.

“You can’t predict these things,” Druckmann says. This sentiment was echoed later by Mazin when discussing the topic of what’s going to happen in season 3.

“I’m experienced enough to know that two weeks from now we may have a different idea of how it should go,” Mazin says. “All I can say is we haven’t seen the last of Kaitlyn Dever and we haven’t seen the last of Bella Ramsey, and we haven’t seen the last of Isabela Merced, and we haven’t seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story.”

It’s worth noting that in real life, the cast of The Last of Us already held a “wrap” party for Joel’s actor, Pedro Pascal. You might have already seen footage of Pascal celebrating by dancing with what appears to be a giant rainbow glow stick. To some, this may read as if Pascal’s time on The Last of Us is done.

But more Joel wouldn’t necessarily mean that the show brings Pedro Pascal back into the mix. Theoretically, the writers could depict a younger Joel with a different actor, as it did when it depicted Joel as a teen.

For now, all we know is that season three will likely place the focus more on Abby to mirror the perspective changes found all throughout the game. The season 2 finale ends with Abby overlooking an enormous Wolf base in Seattle, after all.