Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey play Joel and Ellie in The Last Of Us. But they’re not the first performers to bring the rugged survivor and his teenage protégé to life. Even in the underlying 2013 video game hit, there were real actors behind the characters, who not only lent the duo their voices, but also set the template for movements and facial expressions through performance capture. And it is precisely these video game stars that are now commemorated in a special way in the HBO adaptation.
After the original Joel in Episode 8 Troy Baker appeared in a new role (as the right-hand man of cannibalistic villain David), the season finale also brings us an appearance from the original Ellie Ashley Johnson – and the role chosen for her is a gift as brilliant as it is heartbreaking for the fans of the games…
Original Ellie becomes the mother of series Ellie
Ashley Johnson plays Ellie’s mother Anna in the ninth episode of The Last Of Us, about whose fate we now learn a little more in flashbacks. The latter is also new to those who know the original, since Anna was only mentioned here without appearing herself.
The fact that with Johnson now giving life to Ellie within the “Last Of Us” series, the actress who has already done just that (in a different way) in the games by leading the lead there with her endearing performance is a very deliberate and beautifully fitting trick from game author and series creator Neil Druckmann and his co-showrunner Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”).
The result will be seen soon. The ninth and final episode of the first “Last Of Us” season will be released in Germany in the wee hours of tomorrow, March 13, 2023.
Ashley Johnson: Captain America’s almost girlfriend
In addition to the two “The Last Of Us games”, Ashley Johnson is increasingly active as a voice actress in both video games and animated films and series. She also has relevant live-action experience (Much more than her “Last Of Us” co-star Troy Baker), especially in a lot of indie, but sometimes in bigger productions as well. Her most notable roles here include her role as Mel Gibson’s daughter in the comedy What Women Want and an engagement as the lead in the thriller series Blindspot (currently included in Amazon Prime Video Subscription), in which she starred as FBI Agent Patterson . for five seasons.
Also worth mentioning is her appearance in Joss Whedon’s MCU event”The Avengersas waitress Beth (She also starred in the low-budget Shakespearean adaptation Much Ado About Nothing for Whedon that same year). Though minor in the final version of the Marvel blockbuster (she is only briefly rescued by Captain America during the Battle of New York and then reappears in the later TV account of the events), Beth originally had much bigger plans.
So she would be a new love interest for Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) under construction – who eventually fell for Sharon Carter, Emily VanCamp’s SHIELD agent. More remnants of Cap and Beth’s preparation for their relationship can still be found in the deleted scenes on The Avengers Blu-ray, one of which was intended for the end of the movie which you can watch below: