Recently speaking with Comicbook.com on their The Last of Pods podcast, Joel Miller’s video game voice actor, Troy Baker, opens up on how Neil Druckmann asked him on who he thought would make a great live-action Joel for The Last of Us. To that, Baker had one actor in mind, who happens to be one of the biggest stars in the MCU: Josh Brolin, who used to play the big bad of the MCU, Thanos.
Baker recalled meeting Brolin a handful of times and how he had brought up the idea of Brolin as Joel Miller, back then when The Last of Us was still being considered as a feature film rather than a TV series. Check out Baker’s full story on why Brolin is his best pick for the role:
“I said, ‘There may come a script across your desk, and before you dismiss it either way, just give it a look, because I really think that you’d benefit from playing this character and the character would benefit from it being played by you,’” Baker said, “And [Brolin] was like, ‘I’ll give it a look. What’s it called?’ And I was like, ‘It’s called The Last of Us, and it’s a feature film right now that’s being developed.’”
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Although Brolin promised Baker he would take a look at the script, Baker continued on to say how they eventually landed on a different actor for Joel: “What’s funny is that I think Josh Brolin would’ve been a great choice. I think that you look at the character, especially in the game, and you go, ‘Yeah, that maps, 100%.”
To Baker’s surprise, though, working with someone like The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin brought an interesting perspective on who else fits the titular role in the HBO series: “[Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] go back and forth and goes, ‘What happens if we shake it up a little bit? And who do we get that can not only bring something new and fresh to it, but also kind of change the character a little bit?’”
“And the second that Neil said, ‘I think we got Pedro Pascal,’ I went, ‘Oh. Oh, my God, that’s perfect. It’s perfect,’ because first of all, he’s an incredibly talented actor, and secondly, everybody loves him.”
Who would you have picked to play Joel Miller?
The Last of Us Episode 4 is now available to stream on HBO.
ALSO READ: The Last of Us Episode 4 Breaks Another Viewership Record on HBO
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