Leaked Set Photos From 'The Last Of Us' Series Look At Ellie And Joel
Although video game adaptations are seldomly treated kindly by critics and aren’t big audience draws more often than not, neither Hollywood nor the big streaming platforms show a tendency to cut down on such projects, as recent releases like Resident Evil, Halo, Sonic, or Uncharted prove.
One of the more ambitious and surely very expensive endeavors of this kind is the adaptation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us by HBO, which is slated to conclude filming in June after shooting for 13 months.
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While HBO has released the first official photo of the two main protagonists Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) back in September of 2021, showing them only from the back looking outwards, there is still no official picture of the two characters head-on, but a fan page has now released of a photo of showing Pascal and Ramsey in a seemingly quiet and tender moment, although it is not clear, if the still was taken during filming or if the two actors were just taking a rest during scenes (the crew member standing in the foreground rather suggests the latter, though).
Like the photo from last September, this new picture is another indication of the kind of detail that went into bringing Joel and Elli to life and the often-stated desire of the creators of the show to stay as close to the source material as possible, right down to the selection of the clothing and even the backpacks (Pascal’s Joel is missing the beard, though, that the characters sports in the game).
The Last of Us tells the story of the smuggler Joel and the 14 years old Ellie on their journey through the United States that has been crushed by a virus, turning most of the population into zombie-like cannibals. What little remains of society and civilization is controlled by the military and only a small resistance group, called the Firefly, oppose this regime. Ellie may be the key to the survival of mankind.
Despite being a survival-horror game, much of the beauty of the game and also its success both with critics and the audience comes from its quieter moments and the highly believable father/daughter relationship of Joel and Ellie. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who voiced these characters nine years ago were praised for conveying this chemistry in the game and the success of the TV adaption will to a large extent depend on the believability of this relationship as well.
Although this photo is no hard evidence that Pascal and Ramsey will be able to pull off this chemistry on the small screen, it surely is a good sign that the two actors get along well.
The Last of Us will consist of 10 episodes and will follow the events of the first game. Besides Pascal and Ramsey, the series which is helmed by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and produced by Naughty Dog, PlayStations Productions, and HBO feature Nico Parker as Joels’s daughter Sarah, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Jess, and Merle Dandrige as Marlene, the leader of the Firefly.
With shooting winding down now, the release of the series can be expected sometime in 2023.
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Source: Screen Rant