Recently, HBO announced that two Game of Thrones actors would be reuniting in the upcoming The Last of Us television series as the starring roles, and The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann looks to be supportive of the casting decision.
Last night, HBO first announced that Bella Ramsey would be portraying the role of Ellie in its upcoming Last of Us television adaptation to fan surprise. She may not have been the actor players were expecting to see fill the award-winning character, first portrayed by Ashley Johnson, but many seem to be intrigued by the unexpected decision. Then, Pedro Pascal was announced to play Joel opposite Ramsey, which garnered even more positive fan response. And it looks like Last of Us director Neil Druckmann echoes these views, according to recent tweets.
Druckmann tweeted out short but sweet responses to HBO's Last of Us casting decisions, first saying "We're absolutely thrilled to have Bella join the TLoU family!" And once Pascal's role as Joel in the television series went public, Druckmann had a similar sentiment: "Stoked to have Pedro aboard our show!" He also retweeted Pascal's supportive tweet of Ramsey's announcement to fill the role of Ellie with the comment "...no matter what, you keep finding something to fight for," a famous quote from The Last of Us.
The HBO series will bed led by Druckmann as well as Graig Mazin and Cheryl Strauss who both worked on HBO's Chernobyl, and Strauss also served as an executive producer on Game of Thrones.
Ramsey and Pascal both appeared in the hit HBO show Game of Thrones. Pascal played Oberyn Martell, also known as the Red Viper, appearing in a handful of episodes throughout season 4. However, he is now better known for his starring role on Disney's The Mandalorian, where he plays another pseudo-dad of sorts, similar to his upcoming role as Joel.
Though it was a somewhat small role, Ramsay's role in Game of Thrones was nothing short of significant to fans. Lyanna Mormont became a fan-favorite when she first appeared in season 6 as one of the Northern leaders Jon Snow visited. Her intelligent and brazen attitude for a leader at such a young age—13 in the final season of Game of Thrones—struck a major chord with fans, especially as another strong female figure in the show.
With a team of people with such a strong track record, fans are getting hyped for the upcoming show, with high hopes that it will deliver just as well as the original Last of Us did back in 2013.
The Last of Us television series is in development.