The Last of Us’ original Joel actor was initially against the idea of turning the game into a show

The Last of Us is one of the most famous video game franchises of all time. Hence when the TV adaptation was announced a few years ago, a lot of fans got really excited, and had high expectations for the series. The early fan casting for the show of course began with the game’s original cast, as everyone loved Troy Baker as Joel. He returned to The Last of Us universe to play a completely different role, a minor character called James.

Troy Baker was originally conflicted about the idea of turning the game into TV series

In a recent interview with Deadline, Baker revealed that he was initially not convinced about a TV series based on the video game. He said, “Everything has been surprising because none of this has been expected. It was hoped for, and there was a desire for this thing to find a new audience. Neil really helped me with that because I was against the idea of the show. I was like, “Why not just leave it as a game?” And Neil goes, “Because I believe this story is good enough to get out to people who will never pick up a controller, and we need to bring this story to them.”

“And just seeing the amount of dedication, skill, and perseverance that both Neil and Craig, the producers, and the crew have shown pay off in fan art, social media posts, and tears have been incredible. Seeing this show’s resonance with people has been the most surprising thing. Because if you get to do it once, man, that’s a miracle. And then to be able to do this successful thing twice, we’ve just continually been climbing mountains, and the fact that we’re now sitting here at the top of this new one is truly a miracle.”

Who is Troy Baker?

Troy Baker is a voice actor and musician who has voiced characters from some of the most famous video games that include: Joel Miller in The Last of Us franchise, Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite (2013), Samuel “Sam” Drake in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (2016) and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (2017), Rhys in Tales from the Borderlands (2014), Snow Villiers in Final Fantasy XIII (2010), Kanji Tatsumi in Persona 4 (2008), Higgs Monaghan in Death Stranding (2019), and Talion in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014) and Middle-earth: Shadow of War (2017), and Magni in 2018 God of war.

What is Troy Baker doing now?

Baker is currently working on the upcoming video game Death Stranding 2, as well as the animation that will arrive later this year: The Legend of Vox Machina. He is also the host of the official The Last of Us podcast released weekly by HBO on YouTube.

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