The decision for who will take up the role of Joel in HBO's upcoming adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us series has finally been announced. It looks like the series will be pulling from another hugely popular series, as The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal picks up another huge role in a highly anticipated new adaptation.

This does cancel out the rumors of Mahershala Ali having been eyed for the role, but it's likely that this casting will still be well in-line with fan expectations. Since Pascal has seen a massive rise in popularity, due to a number of quality performances between The Mandalorian and the recent Wonder Woman 1984 film released on HBO Max, fans will likely be excited to see the actor step into Joel's shoes.

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With Pascal's casting announced not long after the reveal of Bella Ramsay as Ellie, it looks like fans can start getting a good idea of how the upcoming adaptation of The Last of Us is going to look. Some fans, as well as Joel's original voice actor Troy Baker, want to see exactly what Pascal could bring to the character from some of the actor's previous roles. For one, the differences between the eccentric role of Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984, juxtaposed with the hyper-serious portrayal of Mando in The Mandalorian shows the range Pascal has access to.

There were a number of actors that some fans and insiders had suggested for the role, in a few cases for previous roles similar to Joel, and others for them meeting the physicality shown in The Last of Us. While Pedro Pascal isn't exactly a one-to-one match for Joel's face, some recent adaptations, like Netflix's The Witcher, have shown that actors like Henry Cavill can still fit the role perfectly without looking exactly like what fans are used to. Most notably, Pascal's range and previous success as characters who can fit the bill for both hero and villain, like Kingsman: The Golden Circle's Whiskey, should ease fans that the actor can play both parts of Joel's character.

Fans of Naughty Dog's game series are slightly of two minds about HBO's The Last of Us adaptation, due mostly to the way that so many games have failed to make the transition into film. However, the talent pool that the showrunners have pulled from previous works, such as the two former Game of Thrones actors for Ellie and Joel, there is reason enough for fans to be excited. Hopefully, Pascal can bring a whole new level of complexity to Joel that will only be available now that his actions are out of the players' hands.

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