The Last Of Us game's original Joel says fans will hate his new HBO character

Spoiler warning: this article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part I - proceed with caution.

The Last of Us TV show is almost here, and Troy Baker, the actor who played Joel in the games, has warned that fans are going to “hate” the character he plays in the series.

We’ve known for a long time now that the beloved Pedro Pascal is Joel in the TV series, but it was more recently confirmed that the original Joel we all know and love from The Last Us games has been given a smaller on-screen role, too. Troy Baker is going to be James - one of the cannibals, and David’s partner in crime.

Take a look at the trailer for The Last of Us series below.

As ComicBook reports, in an interview with Deadline, Baker admitted that fans aren’t going to love his new character: “They will hate me,” he said. But hopefully they’ll understand me, I don’t know. I believe that all characters are the heroes of their own story, so that’s how I kind of approached everything - I never like to play the ‘bad guy’.

“But this was a role that was smaller in the game, and Neil [Druckmann] and Craig [Mazin] were kind enough to kinda put some meat on the bones, and let me really chew. It was a big challenge, it was an opportunity to flex, and it was such a fun time.”

“They will hate me, but hopefully they’ll understand me”: Troy Baker says of his #TheLastOfUs new character James pic.twitter.com/MLFdHDBfgJ

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) January 10, 2023

The first reviews for the series are incredibly promising - it’s been hailed a masterpiece, and even the best video game adaptation ever made. If that doesn’t get you hyped, I don’t know what will. Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to get my heart smashed into a million pieces.

We don’t have long to wait, anyway - the first episode will air on 15 January in the US, and 16 January in the UK.