According to official confirmation from The Hollywood Reporter, Mahershala Ali was tapped to play the key role in The Last of Us: HBO series as the rough and tough-as-nails survival expert and smuggler extraordinaire named Joel. However, sources close to Ali said although he considered it, a deal never came through. The all-star team behind the HBO adaptation of the video game has Neil Druckman as a writer and executive producer along with Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, and Carolyn Strauss(worked on both Game of Thrones and Chernobyl) as another executive producer. They’ve even gone as far as to hire Kantemir Balagov to direct the pilot episode. Bagalov has won many awards overseas – one of them being best director for Beanpole in 2019 in the Cannes Film Festival. The series is supposed to stick as close to the main story from the games, since that’s what made TLOU so phenomenal in the first place.
The thought of potentially casting Ali as Joel(which isn’t happening) is interesting because this could potentially change up part of the cast as well. It shouldn’t change the story too much, but if HBO and the team over at Sony Picture Television, Playstation Productions, Word Games, and Naughty Dog decide to be more socially conscious – certain elements might not stick…or it can actually be well received and end up being a story of it’s own. Something that’ll slightly separate it from the narrative of it’s video game counterpart. We saw this work out exceptionally well with the first season of The Watchmen HBO series starring Regina King.
The team first offered the role of Joel to Matthew McConaughey, who actually turned down the offer. Casting actors with a lot of notoriety can be a success for a television series, and sometimes it can fail because they just weren’t the right fit. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bella Ramsey has been confirmed to play Ellie. You’ll most likely recognize Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. Yes, the ferocious little girl that had an entire hall of grown men quaking in their boots whenever she spoke…I’m more than positive she’s going to bring some of that kick-ass attitude to her role as Ellie, since Ellie was also a character not to be taken lightly. We’ll bring you more details as they unfold for TLOU:HBO. What do you think about Bella Ramsey being Ellie, do you agree with this casting decision or not? Let us know in the comments below!
Hey! I’m Lais a.k.a. Chipz-N-Stix and I love video games and nerd culture overall. I typically do reviews and impressions on video games as well as offer some helpful tips and tricks to enhance your gaming experience. From time to time I tend to touch on certain topics that get you thinking – things that would matter to the individual. I’m also a self-proclaimed Pokemon Master but that doesn’t mean you can outright challenge me. I have to “motivate” my team for that!
