The Last of Us Showrunner Praises Ellie Actress Bella Ramsey

There is a lot of anticipation for HBO's upcoming The Last of Us adaptation. Fans of the popular post-apocalyptic video game have been eagerly awaiting the live-action series and now, with the show's release just a few weeks away, showrunner Craig Mazin is opening up about making the project come to life and has nothing but praise for Bella Ramsey, who plays one of the series' main characters, Ellie. Speaking with SFX Magazine (via Collider), Mazin spoke about the challenge in casting the role of Ellie and said that Ramsey is "the most remarkable performer."

"Ellie took longer because it's a harder role to cast," Mazin said. "We're trying to cast a 14-year-old girl and acting is an incredibly difficult thing to do, right? It's an easy thing to do terribly. It's a hard thing to do okay. But it's a really, really hard thing to do brilliantly. And children haven't had that much life experience. It's hard to find kids that can embody this."

Mazin said that they saw over 100 people for the role before Ramsey, but that while he was worried that co-creator Neil Druckmann wouldn't like Ramsey, that ended up not being the case at all.

"I was panicked that [Druckmann] wouldn't like it and I would have to live the rest of my life knowing that we couldn't have the best Ellie ever," he said. "But happily, he loved her. And we couldn't have done better. She's just the most remarkable performer."

The Last of Us HBO Premiere Will Be Long

Amid a series of rumors, the HBO Latino programming schedule has confirmed the Pedro Pascal-starring series will debut with an 85-minute premiere. Clocking in at an hour and 25 minutes means fans of the video game adaptation will receive a premiere roughly equivalent to a feature film.

In total, the series is set to run for a total of nine episodes over the duration of its first season. The exact scope of the series has yet to be determined, though it's said to cover the story from the first game while also borrowing pieces from the sequel as well.

What Can You Expect From The Last of Us?

HBO describes the series, "The series takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival."

The Last of Us premieres January 15, 2023, on HBO.