Troy Baker Believes Joel Is The Villain In The Last of Us

When it comes to games with such a deep story and lore, it’s easy to see roles and definitions blur in terms of moral choices and intents. That’s the case with The Last of Us, where we’ve yet to understand what’s going on with the protagonist of the original game, Joel, in the incoming follow up. 

When it comes to games with a deep story and lore, it’s easy to see roles and definitions blur in terms of moral choices and intents. That’s the case with The Last of Us. Despite Joel’s principal role in the first game, we have yet to learn where he’s going to be in the sequel.

According to voice actor Troy Baker, the character we’ve played as in the first part doesn’t necessarily need to be considered a hero. On the contrary, Baker thinks that Joel is the villain in the story overall.

Baker spoke Manchester Comic-Con, via ComicBook. The voice actor mentioned David, a villain in during a portion of the game in, has good reasons to act like that. David’s actions make him the hero in his own story.

“Joel, I don’t think deals in those terms at all,” Baker said. “I don’t think Joel believes he’s a hero. If he was to lean anywhere, I think that Joel would consider himself a villain, which is why he can say that he’s been on both sides. Like he can say ‘I’m just a guy trying to get by. I’m not here to save anybody; I’m not here to upset anyone’s plans. I’m just trying to live one day at a time’.”

These descriptions fit the character well, especially when fans think back to how the story of the first game played out. You see that Joel isn’t even interested in the mission the initial moment he met Ellie. But that in the end, he acquires some humanity by being close with her as their journey progressed. Now, we don’t have any news of him, and there’s a chance that the way the original game ends has built some hate between the two.

Right now, we still have no new news regarding the release date of The Last of Us Part II. Last time we heard, it was a rumor about it ending the series story on May 2020, but again that was just a rumor.