You can’t fool us,Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. Joel Miller is dead. And no amount of smirking, shoulder-shrugging, or carefully worded panel quotes will convince us otherwise. For those somehow still buying into the propaganda, here’s theofficialnarrative: Mazin and Druckmann,the “creators” of HBO’sThe Last of Us(if you believe that sort of thing), claim they did not, in fact, brutally murder Joel Miller — a beloved man, father figure, guitar enthusiast and carpenter — with a golf club in a snow-covered cabin while his surrogate daughter was held at gunpoint.
They insist he’s fine. ThatPedro Pascal— sorry,who?— is an “actor” who is “alive” and “in other projects.”Sure. Just like Joel’s still splitting wood for the Jackson community and whistling show tunes with Tommy on patrol.
And yet, Joel’s guts were all over the floor. So either we’re watching snuff fiction, or Mazin and Druckmann have access to the Lazarus Pit.And until they explain how “Pedro” has a suspiciously Joel-like beard inGladiator II, we’re not letting this go.
“We didn’t kill him!” Mazin pleaded at Variety’sA Night in the Writers’ Room, his voice nearly cracking under the weight of millions of broken hearts. He and Druckmann might as well have been wringing their hands like crime-scene cleanup crews, shovels in hand. “He’s fine. And he’s in literally everything else,” Mazin insisted, conveniently glossing over the minor detail that Joel Miller is not “everything else.” He’s Joel Miller. He’sourJoel, damn it. Frankly, the gaslighting is Olympic-level and these pair are going for gold.
No, They Didn’t Kill Pedro Pascal. But They Did Break Us.
For those now crawling toward sanity like Ellie toward Joel’s lifeless body: yes, this is fiction. Joel Miller is a character.Pedro Pascal is aliveand definitely not buried under the snow in Jackson. At Variety’s Emmy-contending writers panel,The Last of Usco-creators discussed Season 2’s biggest moment: Joel’s death. As Druckmann put it:
“People had very strong reactions to whatever controversial story decision we made.”
Mazin added that he was getting a bit tired of the constant complaints regarding the “death” of Pascal, noting with some exasperation:
“The big complaint that I’ve gotten is, ‘Why did you kill Pedro Pascal?’ And I keep explaining, we didn’t kill him! He’s a man, he’s alive. He’s fine. And he’s in literally everything else. So I know what the problem is!”
Ultimately, the pair defended their choice to let Joel’s death happen early in the season — not just to stay faithful to the game, but to set the emotional tone: “This is the inciting incident for this story,” Druckmann said. “The later it got in the season, it just felt we were kind of dragging our feet.”
The Last of Us, that famed documentary series, is now streaming on HBO Max.
The Last Of Us
After a global pandemic destroys civilization, a hardened survivor takes charge of a 14-year-old girl who may be humanity’s last hope.
