Few character deaths in recent film and television history have sparked as much debate as Joel’s in The Last of Us. While audiences first met Joel in the critically acclaimed video game series by Naughty Dog, it was the 2023 HBO television adaptation that brought his story to a broader global audience.
Portrayed by Pedro Pascal, Joel became a symbol of emotional resilience, moral complexity, and the cost of survival in a collapsed world. So when the character was brutally killed in the sequel story arc—explored in the film continuation or potential follow-up series—many viewers were stunned.
The decision to kill Joel was not made lightly, nor was it done purely for shock value. It was a creative choice grounded in themes that have defined The Last of Us from the beginning: consequences, grief, the cycle of violence, and the cost of love.
Joel’s Role in the Original Story
In both the game and the television adaptation, Joel is introduced as a hardened survivor. After losing his daughter in the early days of the outbreak, Joel becomes emotionally distant and morally ambiguous. He smuggles, kills, and does whatever it takes to survive in a world ruled by desperation.
When he’s tasked with transporting a teenage girl, Ellie, across the country, he reluctantly accepts. Over time, the pair bond, and Joel comes to see Ellie as a second chance at fatherhood. Their relationship becomes the heart of the story, but it reaches a complicated climax.
At the end of the first arc, Joel discovers that the cure to the infection—housed in Ellie’s immune brain tissue—requires her death. He chooses to save her, killing doctors, soldiers, and even lying to Ellie afterward to protect her from the truth.
This act sets the stage for everything that follows.
The Cost of Joel’s Choice
Joel’s decision to save Ellie is deeply human but morally ambiguous. He condemns humanity to continued suffering by prioritizing one person over the many. This is not framed as heroism; it’s framed as love with consequences.
Killing Joel in the sequel—whether in the video game or cinematic continuation—forces both characters and audience to confront those consequences. The brutal nature of his death isn’t just a punishment; it’s a narrative reckoning. He took something away from others, and eventually, someone came to take something away from him.
This is key to understanding the creative rationale. Joel’s death is not just an event. It’s the emotional and thematic axis for everything that happens afterward.
Introducing Abby: The Other Side of the Story
Joel is killed by a new character named Abby, who is introduced in the sequel storyline. She’s not a one-note villain—she’s a woman seeking justice. Her father was the surgeon Joel murdered when he rescued Ellie. Abby’s act of vengeance isn’t random; it’s personal and premeditated.
In killing Joel, the story doesn’t just shift the narrative—it expands it. It asks the viewer to see both sides of a conflict, to understand that even beloved characters are not immune to the consequences of their actions. This moral symmetry deepens the world rather than flattening it into a traditional revenge plot.
Abby is the mirror to Ellie. Her grief, rage, and trauma parallel Ellie’s own arc. Joel’s death is the catalyst that sets both characters on a collision course defined by revenge, trauma, and—eventually—moral clarity.
Why the Death Was So Brutal and Early
Joel’s death occurs relatively early in the sequel’s narrative structure. It’s sudden, violent, and deeply unsettling. For viewers, it feels abrupt—almost unfair.
But that’s precisely the point.
The creators wanted the audience to feel Ellie’s shock, rage, and helplessness. The jarring timing and graphic nature of the scene aren’t gratuitous; they’re experiential. You don’t just witness Joel’s death—you feel its emotional aftershock for the rest of the story.
This approach aligns with The Last of Us’s core philosophy: nothing is tidy in this world. People die not with resolution, but with unfinished conversations, unresolved guilt, and unanswered questions. Joel’s death is meant to hurt—not just because he’s loved, but because his story is complicated.
Character-Driven, Not Shock-Driven
Critics of Joel’s death often argue that the scene was engineered to shock and alienate fans. However, the story’s foundation contradicts that assumption. This was not a Game of Thrones-style twist designed for buzz. It was a calculated narrative decision rooted in character development.
Joel’s death serves three primary functions:
- It holds Joel accountable for actions he took out of love but with irreversible consequences.
- It launches Ellie’s transformation, pushing her into a moral gray zone and testing her identity.
- It introduces new perspective, namely Abby’s, which forces the audience to reevaluate their assumptions about right and wrong.
If Joel had lived, the story might have grown stagnant. His death, painful as it is, propels the narrative into uncharted emotional territory.
Reception and Risk
The choice to kill Joel was undeniably divisive. Longtime fans felt betrayed. Some viewers struggled to connect with the shift in tone and the introduction of a new central character. Online backlash was swift and, in some cases, hostile.
But that reaction underscores how effectively the creators made Joel matter. You can’t be upset about the death of a character you didn’t care about. His loss resonated precisely because he was complex, flawed, and deeply human.
Over time, many critics and viewers came to appreciate the creative risk. Joel’s death didn’t follow a conventional formula, and that’s what made it bold. It opened the door for more mature, emotionally demanding storytelling.
A Legacy, Not an End
Joel’s physical death isn’t the end of his impact. Throughout the continuation of The Last of Us, he appears in flashbacks, memories, and conversations. His influence remains central to Ellie’s journey. Her grief, choices, and eventual growth are shaped by the man who raised her in a broken world.
In that sense, Joel’s presence outlives his body. He becomes a symbol—not of perfection, but of love and its cost. And that’s what The Last of Us has always been about: not survival for its own sake, but survival in the shadow of the choices we make.
Killing Joel in The Last of Us wasn’t an act of cruelty. It was a narrative necessity—one that challenges viewers to grapple with forgiveness, pain, and the weight of human decisions. It forces us to ask hard questions: What would we do for someone we love? Who gets to decide the value of a life? And what happens when justice and revenge blur?
Joel’s story may have ended, but his legacy continues—in Ellie, in Abby, and in the audience that still feels the sting of his loss.