The Last of Us HBO Series Surpasses Netflix’s Wednesday as Showrunners Explain Joel’s Emotional Struggles

The Last of Us HBO series is one of the best game adaptions given to us by the minds of Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin. The adaptation series does stay true to the core, but on top of that, provides certain insights, subtle changes, displays of emotion and so much more. Not just players of the game, but even newcomers to the franchise have also been enjoying the series.

“They made it their own and it’s just as beautiful.”#TheLastOfUs cast and showrunners @clmazin & @Neil_Druckmann discuss recreating one of the most iconic scenes from the game. pic.twitter.com/OLIR2MAOXm

— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) February 22, 2023

Game of Thrones stars, Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, along with other cast members have provided us with captivating performances too. The HBO show has already managed to surpass another recent HBO series in terms of streaming. Now, The Last of Us series has decided to take on the likes of Netflix’s Wednesday.

The Wrap‘s analytics of the most-in demand breakout series between 11 February to 17 February 2023, shows that The Last of Us was in first with Wednesday in second. The Last of Us had a 61.3x demand and Wednesday had 28.8x, the HBO series was around two times more in demand than the Netflix series in that week. Other shows in the list included the likes of Paramount’s 1923 in third, Peacock’s Poker Face in fourth, HBO Max’s Velma in fifth and more.

Joel’s emotional struggles explained by showrunners (Episode 6 spoilers)

The Last of Us Episode 6 spoilers ahead of this point. To stay spoiler-free, check out our The Last of Us Season 1 Review.

Spotted by Eurogamer, through the show’s podcast, we receive an insight into the cause of Joel’s panic attacks, as explained by showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin. These were seen in the most recent episode and many players were confused about these scenes as these panic attacks were not present in the original game.

The creators explain that the cause of them is Joel feeling that he will let Ellie down at some point ahead. His character has “core trauma” and “core shame” due to events at the beginning of the outbreak. Therefore, the character ends up not considering his achievements and dwells on his failures. Therefore, he ends up mentioning the times he couldn’t save Ellie when he meets his brother Tommy.