This has certainly been one of the bigger arguments in the gaming world since the release of the trailers for the game back at the very beginning of this year. People believe that Joel is dead because there is no sight of him in the first released trailers of the game. The thing is that you can see him barely in one. It is a question that is being tossed way up in the air but one has to speculate that nothing has happened to Joel despite the rumors and the arguments that have been taking place online and in major gaming chatrooms and message boards.
One can certainly be prepared to see and to have Joel as one of the playable charchters in the game. It was the trailers for the game though that were throwing everyone off. With Joel not being in the trailers everyone started to think that he was either killed off of the series or that he was simply omitted. One really cannot say for certain that is the case so it is safe to say that Joel will be a part of The Last of Us 2.
Joel is one of the major characters in The Last of Us 2. People are speculating that Joel is going to die because of the kind of world that would be available after the apocalypse. The trailer of the game was also a bit of a cliff-hanger to people because Joel was not shown in two of the trailers.
People should not worry though because he was still shown in one trailer as the one who is teaching Ellie how to play the guitar. The person who is also in charge of doing the voice of Joel seemed to have done some work for the game. There is a big chance that he is still one playable character that you can look forward to using.