The Last of Us is one of the most beloved game series of the past decade, and part of that is thanks to the brilliant character design. Naughty Dog was able to create grounded and real figures with the cast of The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part 2, with Ellie's persona being one that is particularly complex. One fan recently attempted to cosplay the star of the post-apocalyptic video games, and the results are quite astounding.
Recently cosplay posts were uploaded to r/thelastofus and r/gaming and they've quickly blown up. The images star Christina Volkova, who is portraying the 19-year old version of Ellie from The Last of Us Part 2. Fans are doing double-takes because the cosplay is so good that it genuinely looks like it could be an in-game screenshot, promotional art, or a concept piece from The Last of Us.
Christina Volkova is far from the first to take a crack at the protagonist of this survival game, as there have been many Ellie cosplayers in the past. However, this could top the list in terms of simply matching the look of the character. In the images, Volkova is looking into the near distance with her bow or shotgun at the ready, her outfit matches the look of The Last of Us Part 2, she has all of the accessories, and she even has the tattoo from the game.
It is probably that some editing was done in the image to make Volkova look a bit more like Ellie, and even a bit more like a video game. Her hair, face, and skin have a slightly fuzzy look to it--and the image as a whole almost looks painted in nature. But all of this adds to the cosplay. Only a couple of months ago, a fan shared a painting of what it would look like if Ellie were infected, as the community very much likes to play with the lore of the games.
Volkova certainly looks the part and appears to be a talented cosplayer. Some comments even joke that the upcoming HBO show should have picked Volkova for the role of Ellie. However, it appears that HBO is leaning towards telling the story of the first game, which would need a younger version of the character. Fans have already deep-faked the actors for The Last of Us HBO show to see what they would look like, but it is likely that more details will come for that program soon enough.
The Last of Us 2 is available now on PS4.