Troy Baker’s Role in ‘The Last of Us’ Game and Show, Explained
Having received numerous accolades for “The Last of Us”, Baker plays a major role in the original video game, though he portrays someone different — and much more menacing — in the HBO adaptation.
HBO’s The Last of Us took a different turn with casting for the leading roles, though the show still brought back most of the original game’s actors in minor, but still visible roles.
The most notable example might be Ashley Johnson, an actress who portrayed Ellie in “The Last of Us” and then went on to play Ellie’s mother Anna in the HBO series.
Apart from that, the show also starred Troy Baker, another major figure from the video game who this time got a way more different role, and for a pretty weird reason.
Troy Baker Portrayed Joel Miller in “The Last of Us” Video Game
Before Pedro Pascal became Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s top choice for the role of Ellie’s companion and eventually father figure, Troy Baker was cast to play Joel in the original game years before the HBO series came around.
Since “The Last of Us”’s TV adaptation didn’t mind recasting some of the original actors for the same roles they had in the game, Baker was believed to be the most probable contender for Joel’s role in the series too.
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For some reason, however, the show’s creators considered Baker to be a little too young for portraying Joel on the screen (even though the actor is just a year younger than Pascal), so he didn’t land the role after all.
Still, it might be that Mazin and Druckmann felt like Baker’s presence in the show would guarantee the audiences’ trust, which is why the actor went on to portray one of the most repulsive villains in “The Last of Us”’ universe.
Troy Baker Made a Major Character Change With James’ Role in ‘The Last of Us’
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Whether this was intentional or just a pure accident, the actor went from a (questionable) hero to one of the most disgusting villains in HBO’s take on the video game’s storyline.
In The Last of Us’ season 1, Baker makes a surprising appearance as James, the right-hand man of David, the leader of the cannibalistic group of survivors.
Ellie’s encounter with both David and James happens when she and Joel are stuck in the forests, with the latter being just too severely wounded to continue the journey.
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While Ellie tries to hunt a deer, David reaches out to her, suggesting that she shares the killed deer’s meat with their community and they supply her with medicine in return.
Eventually, Ellie figures that the whole thing was just a trap made for her to become David and his fellow cannibals’ next victim.
The encounter with David has become one of the most traumatising events in Ellie’s life, with her being imprisoned and almost sexually harassed by the cult leader.
