Matthew McConaughey Confirms He Was Almost Joel in HBO’s The Last of Us Show, And What Happened

Before Pedro Pascal stepped into the role of Joel Miller for HBO’s TV series adaptation of The Last of Us, audiences—gamers, in particular—knew only Troy Baker’s portrayal of the character in both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II video games. Adaptations are never easy when it comes to audience reception, whether that’s movie adaptations of books, tv show/movie adaptations of video games, or something else. That was true of The Last of Us show too, which faced backlash for various casting choices. However, generally speaking, Pascal proved himself in the role, and viewers quickly grew to love him as Joel.

That makes it even more difficult to imagine any other actor in the role of Joel for the series, but there were, of course, various actors who were considered. Among those rumored names are Moonlight star Mahershala Ali, the MCU’s Josh Brolin, and Oscar winning actor Matthew McConaughey, who has now provided new insight into what that process looked like and why, ultimately, he didn’t star in the show.

Matthew McConaughey Seriously Considered The Last of Us

Speaking with Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Matthew McConaughey confirmed that he did truly consider the role of Joel in The Last of Us, explaining, “I did. That was also, I wasn’t really acting at that point. I think that was part of when I was doing more writing and looking at, you know, leadership roles in life and stuff. It was really good. I was really excited.”

He continued, “The Last of Us was really good. I just, it wasn’t for me at the time. I don’t know what would have been for me at the time. The first thing that came across was Rivals that I went like, oh, this is extremely particular. It’s a movie. It’s one movie. A series, you do have to consider, I do consider, well, you want this to succeed? Well, in success, this is something you’ll be doing for years and years and years.” By Rivals, McConaughey is specifically referring to the 2025 movie The Rivals of Amziah King, for which he was the titular lead and which had been his first non-video or voice role in several years.

It makes complete sense that The Last of Us would not have fit with McConaughey’s focus at the time, especially when considering the time commitment. And, of course, he was correct. Although Joel sadly died in season 2 of The Last of Us, this nevertheless would have been a multi-year, multi-season commitment (and it’s likely Pascal will appear in some capacity in the upcoming third season of the show, in either flashback or in some other way, at the very least because of his popularity with audiences). With McConaughey wanting to focus on other endeavors at that time, The Last of Us just wouldn’t have worked.

As mentioned, though, it’s also difficult to imagine anyone but Pascal in that role. McConaughey is unquestionably a brilliant actor, and he no doubt would have done a solid job, but Pascal brought such a raw performance to the show, and he perfectly captured Joel’s gruff nature but also deeply paternal feelings about Ellie. In the end, things seem to have worked out exactly as they should have.