Instead of Pedro Pascal in “The Last of Us”
Matthew McConaughey was set to play Joel
Matthew McConaughey (left) was already in talks about playing Joel in “The Last of Us”.
© Paul Smith / Featureflash 2015/ImageCollect.com / Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney
The series “The Last of Us” would have been massively different – if Matthew McConaughey had taken the leading role instead of Pedro Pascal.
The equally successful and popular video game adaptation “The Last of Us” apparently almost had a completely different dynamic. As one of the two creators of the series, Craig Mazin (52) and Neil Druckmann (44), now revealed, instead of fan favorite Pedro Pascal (48), they initially had another actor in mind for the role of Joel – Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey (53) . Mazin has now confirmed this message, which previously only haunted the world as a rumor, in the podcast “Happy Sad Confused”.
“I spoke to Matthew”, quotes the US site “Variety” from the podcast. “I can’t say it was anything serious. It was more like, ‘Hey, there’s something we could talk about.’ […] Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor. I’m sure it would have been great, but it would also have been extremely different and I really like the version we did.”
Apparently, it didn’t look good at first that Pascal would take on the leading role. He was “on our list from the start,” explains Mazin. “But we were told that he wasn’t available.” Only a short time later, however, his phone rang and Pascal’s agent was on the other end of the line with the good news that the star could probably do it after all – apparently he had liked the script that was sent so much that he didn’t want to miss the job.
Another Oscar winner, on the other hand, was never in the running
The rumor that is not true, however, is that two-time Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (49) was also in talks for a part in “The Last of Us”: “I actually never spoke to Mahershala,” Mazin also revealed freely in the podcast.
Mazin is best known for the acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl, and Druckmann was the mastermind behind the two The Last of Us video games that inspired the series. Together they stated that after the already confirmed second season there will be at least one more.