There’s one major difference between Pedro Pascal’s Joel in The Last of Us TV show and video game Joel, and it’s hilarious

The Last of Us is one of the most critically acclaimed video games of all time. The Last of Us could end up being one of the most critically acclaimed TV series of all time too. The seeds of greatness are wherever Joel Miller happens to be, but the video game Joel and the TV show Joel have one major difference between them, and it’s hilarious.

Craig Mazin was tasked with the difficult job of breaking the wheel (as a certain Dragon Lady would say) of bad video game adaptations. The history in that department is so depressing that mediocrity feels like a success compared to the myriad of straight-up letdowns that gamers have had to endure on the big screen.

The small screen has now come to the rescue. Naughty Dog itself isn’t completely innocent in the video game adaptation mess. Its other cinematic masterpiece Uncharted was adapted as a feature film in 2022, to a traditionally forgettable result. Now Naughty Dog seems intent on seizing the opportunity for redemption with The Last of Us TV show.

The promise of a faithful adaptation is there from the very start, but while every TLOU fan can reasonably expect a great viewing experience, they can’t expect the video game Joel and his TV counterpart to be exactly the same. Pedro Pascal is as good an actor as you can find in Hollywood, yet even he can’t bring one crucial aspect of Joel to the screen.

On Jan. 15, The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin spoke to Polygon on the one major difference between the video game Joel Miller and the TV show Joel Miller, as portrayed by Pedro Pascal:

“Joel is walking in a crouch so much that he would have, like, these massive quads, right? 55-year-olds can’t crouch for more than three minutes, tops, and then their back gives out,” he said.

Mazin’s explanation of why TV Joel will be different from the video game Joel is hilarious, yet slightly sobering. Gamers are sometimes prone to forget that reality is much more limiting than the in-game world.

As much as we’d appreciate every little detail from our favorite games being replicated exactly, we really don’t want to see the amazing Pedro Pascal blowing out his back, so we are bound to let this one slide. As long as The Last of Us TV series matches the quality of its video game namesake, we can do with slightly less crouching.