Bella Ramsey was stepping into some incredibly big shoes when she was cast as Ellie in HBO’s The Last of Us. In the games, the character is played by Ashley Johnson, with her performance across The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II considered one of the finest in video games.
The first season has just wrapped up in spectacular (and controversial) fashion, with Johnson appearing in a pivotal role in a scene we never saw in the games. To mark this, Johnson has spoken about developing the character and working with Bella Ramsey on HBO’s official The Last of Us podcast. This is hosted by Troy Baker, (the games’ Joel) and features showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
Druckmann first explained how Johnson’s input helped define Ellie, saying:
“We wrote that game kind of live, organically. But then you were cast and you helped shape that character significantly. One of the first scenes we shot is the truck ambush and in the game you get pulled out of the truck and you’re wrestling with this guy until Joel comes and saves you. You pulled me aside when we were working on that scene and were like “I feel like I would fight back more, I should be more active here” and that was the first moment where the character started shifting to becoming more capable.”
Johnson has played Ellie over multiple games now and would be a lock for any future The Last of Us Part II sequel so she’s understandably protective of her. She went on to say that the casting options for the canceled The Last of Us movie didn’t convince her… and then she met Bella Ramsey:
“Not that we have any say necessarily on who was cast in it but something didn’t ever feel right until Bella. There is something so similar that the both of us have and instantly when I met Bella there was this feeling of wanting to protect them. The first time I met Bella I was a little taken aback because it felt like I was meeting the real Ellie, like the character coming out of the game. Obviously, we both played these parts, but there’s a little bit of where Bella kind of feels like my kid and we have very similar mannerisms and she gets it. I was so blown away by her performance.”
Ramsey nailed her performance in the first season, but anyone that’s played The Last of Us Part II will know that she’ll have to step it up another notch for where Ellie’s story goes. The sequel is set five years on from the first game, with Ellie older, wiser, and far more capable in combat than where we leave her at the end of The Last of Us.
Based on the first season, we’re supremely confident that Mazin and Druckmann know what they’re doing, and our only complaint is that season two can’t get here soon enough. Current indications are that production will tee off in late 2023 or early 2024, meaning that if all goes well, we should pencil in late 2025 for it to hit HBO.
We’ll be counting the days, though at least this season finale will give fans something to chew on for some time yet.
The Last of Us is available to stream on HBO Max.