Game of Thrones stars Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal have been cast in HBO’s upcoming series The Last of Us.
Fans will remember Ramsey for her breakout portrayal of Lyanna Mormont in the epic fantasy series, adapted from the books by George R. R. Martin.
In The Last of Us — which is based on the video game of the same name — Ramsey will play Ellie, a 14-year old orphan who has never known anything but a ravaged planet. Ellie finds herself having to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging as she grapples with the newfound reality that she just may be the key to saving the world.
For his part, Pascal, who played Oberyn Martell on the fourth season of Thrones, was recently seen on the big screen as the villainous Maxwell Lord in Wonder Woman 1984, alongside Gal Gadot and Kristen Wiig and is currently in production on Judd Apatow’s The Bubble for Netflix. He also gained prominence as Javier Peña on the Netflix biographic crime series Narcos.
In the high-profile upcoming HBO adaptation series, Pascal will take on the role of Joel, a hardened survivor who is hired to smuggle Ellie out of an oppressive quarantine zone.
The series will mark the first time the actors have shared screen time, as their characters never interacted on Game of Thrones.
According to the synopsis, “What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the US and depend on each other for survival. Tormented by past trauma and failure, Joel must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity.”
The Last of Us series was first announced as being in development at HBO in March 2020, with the show later securing a formal series order in November. Based on the video game of the same name, the series takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed.