The Last of Us
HBOWhile it was strongly, heavily implied, The Last of Us didn’t want to make it official until after the finale, where we know Ellie survives. Bella Ramsey will return as Ellie in season 2 of the show, and will not be recast with an older actress.
Ramsey (who identifies as non-binary, and told the New York Times she doesn’t care about which pronouns people use to identify her), previously had celebrated news of the show’s renewal for season 2, excited that the adventure would continue, but there was never official word of her continued casting until now. And it was never really a debate at all, according to the showrunners.
“We are extremely lucky to have Bella…and the only way we would ever consider recasting Bella is if she said, ‘I don’t want to work with you guys anymore,'” showrunner Neil Druckmann told The Wrap. “And even then we’re not sure we would grant her that. We might force her to come back this season.”
Ramsey had previously said she would like to play Ellie forever:
“There are no limits for me,” Ramsey said. “They can do as many games as they like, as many series as they like, and I’ll be here, flying back out to Canada.”
The debate among a subset of fans was twofold, first that Ramsey looked too young to play an aged-up Ellie, who will be five years older next season when the second game is adapted. And that Ramsey wouldn’t be able to pull off Ellie’s extreme violence in the sequel.
Both of these arguments have never made sense. Ramsey is already 19, Ellie’s age in the second game, playing a 14 year old, so she’s the correct age, and with hair and makeup changes, can easily look her actual age next season where she will actually be older than Ellie was in the game.
Second, by the time season 1 has wrapped, we have seen the violent lengths Ramsey’s Ellie has gone to in order to survive, and it’s easy to imagine her amplifying that next season as she becomes a more hardened killer. Ramsey’s Ellie has been one of the most highly praised elements of a highly praised show, and I think it was clear to everyone whose opinion mattered that there was a zero percent chance she would be recast in future seasons.
The show will put even more of a burden on Ramsey moving forward as she takes on an even larger role opposite her foil, Abby, who has yet to be cast, despite some wishlisted fan options. Abby, like Joel and Ellie, is a hugely important, tough role to cast, as in the game she was a blend of three different women, a face model, a body model and a performance capture voice actress. Now, they have to find someone to embody elements of all three.
But given the casting decisions for Joel and Ellie, I think we can have faith they’ll make the right call. And I can’t wait to see what Bella does next season, even if we have to wait a while to see her again.
Last of Us
HBOUpdate (3/14): Alright, I’ve written about this topic a few times now, and it seems that a whole lot of people are confused about the term “recast” and seem to think that I’m saying exactly the opposite of what’s actually happening in season 2. I’m really trying to be as clear as possible, and I am absolutely not trying to orchestrate a clickbait headline here, though I am being accused of precisely that.
When I say an actor, in this case Bella Ramsey is “not being recast,” that means that they are not replacing her with another actor. I made this case in an article last week, where I was talking about her being incredible in the role when it called for extreme violence a key part of season 2, and I said that she was making the case she shouldn’t be recast next season, which is what some people were saying.
“The show has been working set up Ellie’s propensity for violence even more than the games, I’d argue, which I don’t believe actually had a full plan for the second game when the original was made, so they didn’t know where they’d take Ellie. But they have absolutely planted the seeds for Ellie to become a hardened killer (though one you’re still mostly rooting for) in the future seasons of the show, where we’ve heard the second game will be split into season 2 and season 3.”
The confusion appears to be people reading this as “re-cast,” as in, Bella Ramsey will not be re-cast in the same role next season, or cast again. If I were saying that, I would either say Bella Ramsey is being recast, or more accurately, that Bella Ramsey would not reprise her role. Or return for her role. Or something like that.
I guess part of this is on me, as I suppose if I were to do this entire thing over I’d say “Bella Ramsey Is 100% Confirmed To Be Returning As Ellie Next Season,” so a good portion of people don’t misread or misinterpret the phrase “isn’t being recast.” Though enough people do seem to understand exactly what I mean, and just be aware that when you see the term recast in stories like this in the future, this is what it’s referring to.
