How old is Joel in The Last of Us? TV show, Part 1 & Part 2 explained

How old is Joel in The Last of Us? Pedro Pascal stars as Joel in the HBO TV show, but how old is the character compared to the Part 1 and Part 2 games?

After the first season of The Last of Us, viewers who haven’t played the games are desperate for more information about the show’s two leads – Joel and Ellie.

The show, an adaptation of the acclaimed 2013 game, follows Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) on a treacherous cross-country trip across America amid a deadly, monstrous pandemic – and the infected aren’t their only concern.

With millions watching the show each week, some fans may be asking: how old is Joel in the TV show, and is he the same age in The Last of Us game?

How old is Joel in The Last of Us?

Joel is 56 years old in The Last of Us TV show, while Pedro Pascal is 47. In the first game, Joel is 52 years old, and in The Last of Us Part 2, he’s 57.

Thanks to the Part 1 remake released in 2022, we were able to confirm Joel’s age. If you use Photo Mode while Joel is handing over his passport, you can zoom in to check his date of birth. Before then, we never knew his age for sure, instead making an estimate based on context and other small details.

Part 2 takes place roughly five years after the events of the first game, and since Ellie is 19 in the second game, we can safely assume Joel to be 57.

In an interview with USA Today, Ramsey revealed a note Pascal left her once they’d finished filming. It read: “How interesting that something so huge and life-changing should happen so early in your life and so late in mine.”

The Last of Us Season 1 is available to stream on Max and other platforms now. You can check out the rest of our coverage here.