It's hard to imagine anyone other than Pedro Pascal playing Joel Miller in HBO's acclaimed adaptation of The Last of Us, but one of the early names up for the role was Matthew McConaughey.
During a recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, series co-creator Craig Mazin revealed that he "did talk to Matthew" about playing the hardened survivor.
"We did talk to Matthew," he said. "I can't say that it was like a series [of conversations]. It was more of a, 'Hey, here's something to talk about'."
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However, it seems the chances of anyone else getting to play Joel were thrown out the window as soon as Mazin met with Pascal.
"Pedro was on our list from the start," he continued. "We were told he was unavailable, and then as we were floundering about a little bit, I got a call from his agent who said, 'You know, he actually might be available.'"
"I sent [him the script] on a Friday, Saturday morning I get a call.he loves it, he wants to get on a Zoom. We had what I think was maybe the most wonderful Zoom I've ever had. I mean. just love at first sight, and he was so immediately insightful about it."
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Although Mazin went on to say that "McConaughey is an amazing actor" and he would have been "great" in the role, he added: "But it would have been different and I like the one that we made, so what can I say, I think it worked out."
McConaughey might not have been the right fit for Joel, but he's been described as a "natural fit" for Taylor Sheridan's upcoming Yellowstone spinoff series, which he's said to be in "late-stage negotiations" for.
The Last of Us airs on HBO in the US, and on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK.