Who’s excited for the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us? If you’re not, you should be - although we haven’t gotten anything in the way of footage or trailers yet, it’s shaping up to be great, and the cast just got even more stacked.
It’s been revealed that Storm Reid, whose previous roles include Gia Bennett in Euphoria and Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time, will be playing the role of Riley - the friend who Ellie travels with before meeting Joel. First reported by Deadline, the announcement was confirmed by Naughty Dog co-president and director, Neil Druckmann, over on Twitter: “Riley! Welcome to the fam, @stormreid!"
Fans on Twitter have been basically unanimously excited about the news: “Another great actress for a great character! Can’t wait to see how the Left Behind story is integrated into the show. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long until we get a first teaser trailer,” tweeted @AdamantiumLive. “Such a great casting Neil[,] good job!! Cant wait for the show,” wrote @palps44.
We reckon The Last of Us has one of the best video game openings ever - check out our full list of picks below.
HBO’s adaptation is set to follow the plot of the 2013 game, in which Joel must escort Ellie across America to bring her to the Fireflies, with the hope of finding a cure for the Cordyceps virus that’s thrown the world into turmoil. Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) has been cast as Joel, and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) is Ellie.
Riley herself is only mentioned by name in the first game, instead having a much bigger role in the standalone Left Behind DLC, which is set before the events of The Last of Us. It’s worth noting that Reid has been labelled as a “guest star”, which might indicate that she won’t be around for too long in the show, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The series is expected to air at some point this year, and is being produced by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), and Neil Druckmann. Druckmann will also be directing at least one episode of the series, which, y’know, given he wrote the original game, we can almost certainly expect to be great. Hopefully we won’t be waiting too long for a trailer.
Featured Image Credit: Sony, Naughty DogTopics: The Last Of Us, TV And Film, Naughty Dog