Joel is killed in The Last of Us Part II (2020) by a woman named Abby, whose father he murdered in the first game, prompting Ellie to seek revenge.

The development team of The Last of Us spent more time selecting the actor for Joel than Ellie, as the chemistry between the two characters was imperative to the game.

After Troy Baker and Ellie actress Ashley Johnson played alongside each other, the team realized that the former perfectly fit the role of Joel, despite the actor's young age.

[1] Baker contributed greatly to the development of the character; for example, he convinced Druckmann that Joel would care for Tess due to his loneliness.

[4] When writing Joel, Druckmann initially took inspiration from Josh Brolin's portrayal of Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men (2007), which he saw as "very quiet, very cool under pressure".

[7] Baker believes that Joel discovers morality throughout the game's narrative, working out the difference between loss and sacrifice, and his true personality begins to show.

[1] Baker found great difficulty in filming the game's prologue, which features scenes with Joel and his daughter Sarah, portrayed by Hana Hayes.

[11] An early version of Joel's death scene had him utter "Sarah", his daughter's name, until Baker suggested that he should remain silent.

[20] In an earlier version of the scene, Abby stabbed Joel in the back and twisted the knife to paralyze him; however, as knives are more closely associated with Ellie, the team replaced it with a golf club, partly inspired by an incident in Druckmann's youth.

[24] Pascal became available for a new series after the release of the second season of The Mandalorian, attracting several offers for projects from large networks, of which he chose The Last of Us,[22] partly to work with co-creator Craig Mazin.

[30] Pascal based Joel's voice on his own experiences growing up in San Antonio, Texas, paring it back from the Southern accent used in the game.

After her death and the 20 years that follow, during which Joel witnessed more horrific events,[32] he has significantly changed, using violence to solve issues and showing reluctance when asked to escort Ellie.

[47][48] In the time spent in the brutal post-apocalyptic world, still bitter from his daughter's death, Joel became a hardened survivor who was physically and mentally tough.

[39][49] 20 years after Sarah's death, Joel works as a smuggler in the Boston quarantine zone, ruled by a military dictatorship, with his friend and partner Tess.

While searching for a former accomplice who stole some of their merchandise, Joel and Tess are tasked by Marlene, an acquaintance and leader of a rebel militia called the Fireflies, to smuggle the 14-year-old Ellie to a rendezvous point.

Ultimately, Joel shows his devotion to Ellie when he chooses to rescue her from the Firefly doctors who plan to remove and examine her brain, as opposed to allowing her to die.

Flashbacks in the game show Joel taking Ellie on a birthday trip to a museum, and later finally admitting the truth to her after she travels back to the hospital to find out for herself.

After they exchange names, however, Joel and Tommy are swiftly attacked by Abby's group, revealed to be ex-Fireflies who are now part of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), a militia based in Seattle.

[56] Eurogamer's Oli Welsh felt that, by the game's end, Joel and Ellie had "matured from clichés into rounded characters".

[63] Anthony Severino of PlayStation LifeStyle felt that the performance made him care about the character,[64] while Giancarlo Valdes of VentureBeat lauded Baker for adding "nuance and complexity" to the role.

[70][71][72][73] GamesRadar+'s Alex Avard found that Baker "steals some of [the game's] best scenes as Joel" by adding complexities that enrich the character and relationships.

[52][78][79] Empire's John Nugent and /Film's Valerie Ettenhofer referred to Pascal's performance as the best of his career, citing his ability to portray nuance and rare vulnerability.