HBO’s television adaptation of The Last of Us has officially found its Riley. Within the past day, a new report sprang up stating that Storm Reid, who is likely most well-known for her roles in Euphoria and A Wrinkle in Time, would be portraying the character Riley in HBO’s forthcoming series. Now, a little more than 24-hours later, that report has proven to be accurate thanks to an official announcement.
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Coming by way of Deadline, it was confirmed this afternoon that Reid will indeed be portraying Riley Abel in the TV adaptation. Reid has been labeled as a “guest star” in the series, likely because she won’t be in the show for very long. Originally, Riley first appeared as a character in-mention only in the first The Last of Us video game. However, she went on to have a much larger role in Left Behind, which was a standalone piece of DLC that took place prior to the events of The Last of Us. Left Behind centered around both Riley and the main character of The Last of Us, Ellie, and fleshed out the relationship and history between the two of them. In all likelihood, Reid’s appearance as Riley in HBO’s take on The Last of Us will surely be via flashbacks.
Not long after this announcement was made today, Naughty Dog co-president and director Neil Druckmann took to Twitter to celebrate Reid joining the cast. “Riley! Welcome to the fam, Storm Reid!” Druckmann said via his personal Twitter account. He went on to share an image of both Riley and Ellie that stems from the aforementioned Left Behind DLC.
At this point in time, The Last of Us remains in production at HBO, with no other information on its eventual release date yet to be announced. In recent months, continued additions to the show’s cast have been revealed in quick succession, but HBO still has not committed to a launch window of any sort for the series. As the year goes on, however, there’s a near-certainty that this will change. Whenever we do learn more about The Last of Us, we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop here on ComicBook.com.