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“Joel Was Right” – The Last of Us Creator Confirms What Half the Internet’s Been Screaming for a Decade
April 1, 2025Joel’s controversial decision in The Last of Us has fueled endless debates for over a decade. But now, creator Neil Druckmann settles the score: “Joel was right.”
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When One Dad’s Rage Becomes the Internet’s Moral Dilemma
It’s been more than ten years since Joel Miller stormed through a hospital corridor, took out an entire faction of rebels, and made the single most talked-about decision in modern video game storytelling. Now, The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann has finally said what half of us were thinking the moment the credits rolled: “Joel was right.”
Cue the collective internet fist-pumping, guilt-tripping, rage-posting, and philosophical hot takes. Because if there’s one thing this franchise knows how to do besides emotionally devastate you—it’s fuel a debate that never really ends.
Druckmann’s statement came in a new IGN interview ahead of the HBO show’s Season 2 release. Asked whether Joel was justified in rescuing Ellie from the Fireflies—at the cost of possibly dooming humanity—Druckmann didn’t hesitate: “I believe Joel was right… If I were in Joel’s position, I hope I would be able to do what he did to save my daughter.” And with that, the debate fire got another gallon of gasoline.
The Great “Was Joel Right?” Debate (A Decade in the Making)
Let’s rewind. The original Last of Us ends with Joel learning that Ellie, immune to the cordyceps infection, would need to die for a cure to be created. But Joel? He’s not having it. After all they’ve been through, Ellie isn’t just “cargo” anymore—she’s family. So he makes the call. Kills everyone. Lies to Ellie. And walks away. Was it heroic? Was it selfish? Was it both?
Turns out, that depends on whether you’re a Firefly sympathizer or a ride-or-die Joel apologist. And both camps have receipts. What makes this decision so potent is that Naughty Dog wanted players to wrestle with it. It’s not clean. It’s not neat. It’s love and trauma and fear, duct-taped together with a desperate shotgun blast. It’s a game that says: “Here’s what happened. Now you deal with it.” And fans have been dealing with it ever since.
“Save the World” vs. “Save Your World”
Fellow The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin chimed in on the subject too, adding another layer to the conversation. “I’d like to think that I wouldn’t do what Joel did,” he said, “but that’s the interesting push and pull… It just doesn’t let you off the hook.”
Exactly. You’re not watching from a comfy distance. You’re forced into Joel’s boots, shotgun in hand, heart breaking. What would you do?
Mazin even went biblical with it—citing Abraham and Isaac. Because of course, The Last of Us makes you think about ancient sacrifice tales while you’re quietly sobbing over a fictional man and his not-quite-daughter. Meanwhile, Bella Ramsey (our Ellie in the HBO series) had a perspective that perfectly captured Joel’s emotional hurricane. “Joel did save the world. It’s just that the world he saved was his own.” You could almost hear every dad watching the show whisper, “same.”
Here’s the kicker: Druckmann broke it down into moral math that hits harder the more you think about it.
“If I had to kill a random person to save who knows how many lives, in the abstract, you’d say, ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’ But now, remove it from being a random person—and it’s your kid. Now the answer is very different.” Boom! And that’s the heart of The Last of Us. It’s not about monsters or pandemics or fungi. It’s about who we choose to protect when everything else burns down. Joel chose Ellie. And in doing so, maybe he doomed the world. Or maybe he just saved one. Either way, the game never judges you for agreeing with him. And that’s what makes it so damn powerful.
Troy Baker’s Take: “Selfish? Absolutely. But Could He Do Anything Else?”
Troy Baker—aka Joel’s voice and soul in the games—once called Joel’s final decision “the most selfish act ever.” And he wasn’t wrong. Joel doesn’t ask Ellie what she wants. He just acts. He takes the decision from her, because the alternative is losing another daughter. And that’s not something Joel can survive. But Baker also said the ending couldn’t have gone any other way. Joel’s world, from that moment on, is Ellie. Humanity can wait. Young Mazino (who plays Jesse in Season 2) summed it up neatly: “Who cares about the world if your world isn’t there?” And honestly, that might be the real tagline of the series.
While games are fun, it’s highly important to note that there’s more to life than sitting countless hours playing video games – there’s a purpose and more to life; seek out that purpose more often!
