It’s no secret that we at Stuff love The Last of Us. It’s one of our favourite PlayStation exclusives of all time and ranks pretty high in the Overall Favourite Game category. Just give our review of The Last of Us Part II a read to see why we love the franchise so much. Thus, when an HBO series adaption was announced, we were bowled over with excitement. The series debut is still a ways off, but the latest news to come of it has left us more excited for a show than we thought possible.

Announced last night, we now know who’ll be playing the lead roles of Joel and Ellie in the story. Since the series is a direct adaption of the video game, it’s obviously important to find performers that not only look the part but have the acting chops to pull it off; this is an emotional story, there’s no room for bad acting and chewed up scenery.

We’ve been stalling for too long. Pedro Pascal will be playing Joel while Bella Ramsey will be playing Ellie! Now those are some good actors right there.

The Last of Us is looking good

So if those names aren’t familiar to you, let us help you understand why this is so cool. Bella Ramsey is mostly known for playing Lyanna Mormont in HBO’s Game of Thrones series while Pedro Pascal is none other than The Mandalorian himself. We adore both of those performances and, given the characters they’ll be portraying, it’s doubtful that there’s a more suitable pair under the sun.

The Last of Us follows the story of Joel, a jaded smuggler, as he’s tasked with escorting Ellie to safety in a world ravaged by zombies caused by toxic mushroom spores. It’s depressing, emotional and just a powerful story overall. The series is being helmed by the game’s original writer and director Neil Druckmann, alongside Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, and Carolyn Strauss, who was the executive producer on Game of Thrones and Chernobyl. There’s no solid release date for the series yet but it is expected to drop in late 2021 or early 2022.

Source: Deadline