Matthew McConaughey was almost Joel in HBO's The Last of Us

Matthew McConaughey was once in the running to play Joel in HBO's TV adaptation of The Last of Us.

Rumours that McConaughey, along with Mahershala Ali, were both in talks for the part were discussed by Josh Horowitz on his Happy Sad Confused podcast (thanks IGN). Here, The Last of Us' TV showrunner Craig Mazin confirmed he had spoken with McConaughey about playing Joel.

"I actually never talked to Mahershala," he confirmed. "I did talk to Matthew. I wouldn't say that it was serious, it was more of just like, 'Hey, here's something we can talk about'."

Continuing, he explained that Pedro Pascal - who eventually landed the role - was on the team's list from the start but they believed he was unavailable due to scheduling concerns, likely with hit Disney+ show The Mandalorian.

"Matthew McConaughey is an amazing actor, I'm sure it would've been great," Mazin continued. "But it would've been different and I like the one that we made. I think it worked out well."

Ultimately, Pascal was in fact available and ultimately responded to Mazin overnight after first seeing a script.

"Just love at first sight," said Mazin of his initial video call with Pascal. "He was so immediately insightful about it... he was so taken with the script."

Of course, more The Last of Us is on the way, with a second and third season set to depict events from The Last of Us Part 2. Bella Ramsey (Ellie) believes this will likely launch around the "end of 2024, early 2025".

Here's what the Eurogamer team thought of HBO's The Last of Us TV adaptation.