Astute viewers of HBO’s The Last of Us episode 8 may have noticed that Troy Baker had a small role this week as James. Baker isn’t quite as well-known in live-action, but he’s a prominent voice-over actor who is one of the rare performers to have played both Batman and the Joker. More importantly to fans of this franchise, Baker was the original voice of Joel in The Last of Us video games. While his role in the show amounted to a guest star appearance, HBO is keeping Baker involved as the host of The Last of Us podcast. He also answered questions about the series in a pair of videos from HBO.
In the first video, Baker briefly touches on his successor, Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel on the series.
“Selfishly, I really wanted to see what it looked like for someone else to play Joel,” said Baker. “This is literally a dream come true. My goal with doing the show was that whoever played Joel would teach me something I didn’t know about the character. Show me something that I missed. That’s what Pedro does. He shows me that Joel is bigger than any one performance.”
Baker was particularly touched by the love story between Bill and Frank, which was depicted in episode 3. That relationship is one of the primary topics in Baker’s second video below.
“My reaction to seeing the story of Bill and Frank in the show resulted in a lot of tears,” noted Baker. “In the show, we got to see what that relationship looked like. Something that I think that Craig and Neil did very, very well was putting on display what a long-term loving relationship looks like literally in the midst of Hell.”
The Last of Us season 1 finale will premiere this Sunday, March 12, on HBO and HBO Max.
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Spoilers for The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part II, and The Last of Us HBO show.
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