The Last of Us TV Series Gives Joel a Shocking New Occupation

HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us has made a slight change to Joel’s occupation in the apocalypse. HBO’s The Last of Us is finally here and it’s absolutely fantastic. It’s about as faithful to the games as one can get and that’s by design. Not only did series creator Neil Druckmann help write, produce, and direct the show, but showrunner Craig Mazin is a major fan of the games and was very keen on ensuring they stick to the games and not pad it out with a bunch of filler. However, given this is a new medium and there aren’t hours of combat and gameplay, there’s a lot of time that can be used to expand on story, characters, and even make some slight tweaks.

In the game, we don’t see much of Joel’s life in the quarantine zone before he’s thrust into a bunch of action and high stakes adventures. It’s left a little ambiguous, but we do know he’s a smuggler. In HBO’s The Last of Us, we get a lot more insight into what his day to day life is like and it reveals he’s not just a smuggler, he’s a drug dealer. At one point in the first episode, Joel approaches a QZ guard and sells him some hydro, which is an opioid. Joel notes that he doesn’t know where his supplier gets them from, suggesting this is part of a larger operation. He also uses this as an opportunity to get inside info about what’s going on around the QZ and to secure a truck so he can go searching for Tommy. Later in the episode, the guard catches Joel and Tess escorting Ellie outside of the QZ, prompting him to detain the trio. Ellie retaliates and Joel has flashbacks of his daughter’s death, causing him to tackle the guard and beat him unconscious. 

Joel has never been angled exactly as a “good” guy, even though he is intended to be the hero of The Last of Us. It is made clear that he has a sketchy past and the apocalypse pushed him into desperate positions, so it’s great to actually get to see this in action in the series. It’s a small addition that deepens his character even further. 

The Last of Us airs every Sunday night at 9PM ET on HBO. What do you think of this addition to Joel’s character? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder. For more Last of Us content, check out ComicBook and Entertainment Tonight’s new podcast: The Last of Pods. The podcast will include breakdowns of each episode, interviews with special guests from the show, and more. The podcast will release after every episode of the show on Sunday nights.