Deadline reports that Pedro Pascal will play the role of Joel in the upcoming HBO series adaptation of the wildly popular video game The Last of Us while Bella Ramsey, known by many for her breakout role as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, will play Ellie.
The Last of Us centers around a man named Joel who is hired to smuggle a 14-year-old Ellie out of the quarantine zone in a post-apocalyptic United States set 20 years after the demise of modern civilization due to an uncontrollable pandemic. Joel and Ellie soon learn that their journey is more important than they initially expected, and the threat of the outside world forces them to rely on each other for their survival.
The game was released in 2013 and sold over 20 million copies. A sequel, which takes place five years after the events of the original, was released last year, and became the fastest-selling PlayStation 4 exclusive ever after moving four million copies in its first three days.
The Last of Us adaptation received a series order from HBO in November. Aside from the game’s writer and creative director Neil Druckmann serving as executive producer, the show tapped Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin to pen the script and executive produce, along with Carolyn Strauss. This will also be the first series from the PlayStation Productions imprint.
