HBO releases first look at Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last Of Us
The pair star as Joel and Ellie in Craig Mazin's adaptation of the best-selling games
Aux News HBO
Craig Mazin’s adaptation of video game blockbuster The Last Of Us is now officially one step closer to proving its eventual existence, as HBO released the first image of the series today at Summer Game Fest. Said pic showed stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as the game’s iconic main characters, Joel and Ellie.
And, yeah, fair enough: Both actors bear a resemblance to, at the very least, the vibe of the characters from the game, especially Pascal, who’s an old hand at this whole “keep a special child safe while the whole universe is apparently out to kill them” game, and who looks appropriately world weary as the hard-living Joel. (Ramsey, meanwhile, doesn’t look a whole lot like the games’ version of Ellie, but that glimpse of annoyed disdain on her face is certainly in line with the slowly defrosting relationship between the two survivors.)
The images from the series were shown as part of the hefty Last Of Us chunk at today’s Summer Game Fest. In addition to showing off the shot of fellow former Game Of Thrones stars Pascal and Ramsey, the event also saw the game series’ Neil Druckmann (who’s writing on, and directing an episode of, the HBO show, which is being show-run by Chernobyl’s Mazin) announce that the voice acting and motion capture stars of the games, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, would also appear in the show in some form.
The Last Of Us takes place in a version of America in which a fungal infection has turned large percentages of the human population into creatures that are zombies in all but name. The games center on Joel, a hardened survivor with a familiarity with violence, and Ellie, the teenage girl he’s tasked with transporting across the ravaged United States. The games have been both critical and commercial darlings; word of a PlayStation 5 remake of the original game was leaked online earlier today.
The Last Of Us TV show is set to wrap filming on its first season this month; the show will debut on HBO some time in 2023.
15 Comments
Well, at least Pascal has some of the requisite facial hair.
*side-eyes Mark Wahlberg*
key word: some. the man’s beard is patchy at best!
Then why didn’t they get Michael Cera?
he wasn’t in game of thrones.
There’s actually a clicker (the blind variety of this universes zombies) hiding in that shot —- you may need to bump your brightness up to see though.
Hi friends
Bella is a fine young actor with great range, but if they don’t let her mean mug someone they’re squandering her talent.
I hope this show corrects the biggest plot hole from the original game …
In all the months that Joel and Ellie are travelling across the country, they never set aside a few hours a day for a few days to teach Ellie to swim.They just should have said that she had an inner ear infection and that’s why she couldn’t swim. Otherwise, why wouldn’t she just learn how in all those months of travelling?
That’s not really a plot hole… they were focused on surviving the zombie-populated countryside, and they often had a strained relationship. Neither was probably thinking much past getting to their next goal, and expecting to be rid of the other when they got there. It’s also not like there were public swimming pools operating that they could go to, anything like that would’ve had to have been extremely opportunistic, you’d want a dry change of clothes on hand, and there’s a huge risk to leaving behind your gear to go take a dip, it’s time wasted that you could be on the road, etc.
A few hours a day when they were moving across country as quickly (and safely) as they could in an attempt to save both themselves AND humanity?Where’s the logic in your idea? Should they have taken 3 times as long to cross the United States and been exposed to the dangers of the non-quarantine zones, dangers which are made explicit by the many near-brushes with death they experience?Also, by definition that’s not a plot hole. A plot hole is something that CONTRADICTS the internal logic of the story. There’s nothing contradictory here. An actual plot hole would be Ellie not being able to swim in Pittsburgh and without explanation (via visuals or dialogue) being able to swim in SLC. What happens in the game is entirely logically consistent and therefore not a plot hole. It’s just a thing you thought Joel SHOULD have done for Ellie, not one that would have necessarily happened (especially given the time/safety crunch I mentioned above).
I’m excited for this – I liked the first game enough that when Ramsey was cast I was initially like “Buuuut she doesn’t LOOK like Ellie, wahhhh” but I got over it pretty quick, and I bet she’ll bring something pretty great to the role. Pedro is also one of those actors that just seems game for anything, perfect for a vidya adaptation.
God willing the writing is good, though. But I think there’ll probably be at least one freaky scene with a clicker that will get buzz going – truly well done horror on TV is still pretty rare.
I’m glad, honestly. There was a point in time where every female video game protagonist, especially in survival rpgs, looked like Elliot Page.
They’ve been filming this all around my home town for months now. Some really cool sets and scenes. Can’t wait to see it
You must live in my neck of the woods. They were shooting close to my office for a few weeks last year – had a few peeks at street level and from my window at a two-block stretch of downtown that they made into a post-apocalyptic set. It was neat to watch things progress but was a bit like seeing the sausage being made.
I hear you! I live close to the former Northland Village Mall and when it closed they were shooting in there. I could peek through the partitions in one spot and see all the cameras and make-up people and although I did see a couple zombies I didn’t see any stars. But it did make them a bit less scary!