"The entire concept of protagonist is flawed": Craig Mazin explains the point of The Last of Us

The third episode of The Last of Us' second season is just two days away. The second episode ended on a tragic note, as Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller met his end at the hands of Abby, bringing the shocking moment from the game to life. With Pascal's exit, Bella Ramsey's Ellie will be the main lead of this HBO series from now on.

The Hollywood Reporter interviewed actor Bella Ramsey and co-showrunner Craig Mazin on April 22, 2025. In that interview, Mazin touched upon the entire point of both the game and HBO series The Last of Us:

“The point of this story is that the entire concept of protagonist is flawed. The entire concept of villain is flawed. Our way of processing the world through heroes and villains is a mistake. It ends up creating these barriers between people that shouldn’t be there.”

What do The Last of Us co-showrunner Craig Mazin's comments mean?

It seems Craig Mazin has understood the basic point of The Last of Us. It is not surprising that the HBO series is one of the few adaptations to have managed to strike a chord with both fans of the source material and people unfamiliar with the source material. The second season, until now, has faithfully adapted the second game that was released five years ago in 2020.

Mazin's comments about protagonists were particularly aimed at The Last of Us Part II players, who, back in 2020, felt frustrated at being forced to play Abby even after the character killed Joel in the game. Thus, the point of the game was to make the players confront the fact that Joel doomed the entire humanity by killing all the fireflies in the last act of the first game and season.

While viewers and gamers of The Last of Us might've connected with Joel because he is the protagonist of the game. It is undeniable that Joel, even in the first season, did commit some morally questionable actions to survive a post-apocalyptic world. In fact, it is because of his skills as a smuggler that the Fireflies hired him to smuggle Ellie to Salt Lake City in the first place.

But his supposed noble actions in the first season doomed humanity, orphaned a 19-year-old girl, and ultimately sealed his fate. Thus, his death was always meant to happen in The Last of Us Part II and the second season. Co-showrunner Craig Mazin seems to agree with this sentiment, as he said in the USA Today interview:

"Loss is kind of how this story functions, so this was largely preordained. When I talked to Pedro the first time, I said, 'This is how this will go.' I wanted him to know that we're not going to do this for seven seasons with you in that spot. We're going to do a season, and if it goes well and there's a second season, this will happen."

What is HBO's The Last of Us about?

An adaptation of the 2013 game of the same name, the first season of The Last of Us, consisting of nine episodes, was released in January 2023. It follows a grizzled post-apocalyptic survivor, Joel Miller, hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie, who might be the key to fixing this post-apocalyptic world.

"In 2003, a parasitic fungal infection ravaged the planet, turning humans into violent creatures known as the Infected. Twenty years later, hardened survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the rebel Fireflies. Season 2 of The Last of Us picks up five years after the events of Season 1. Joel and Ellie’s collective past catches up to them, drawing them into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind."

Trending

The entire first season of The Last of Us and two episodes of the second one are accessible to stream on Max.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback