Season 2 of the HBO series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us is expected to start filming in Vancouver, Canada on January 7, 2024 – and while speaking to the folks at Collider, series star Bella Ramsey revealed what she’s most looking forward to about working on the new season: getting the chance to do more stunts, and to play out the Dina storyline.
Since The Last of Us season 2 will be based on the video game The Last of Us Part II, Ramsey knows a bit about what to expect from the new episodes. She told Collider, “I’m excited for the really intense stuff, because I did a bit of that in season 1 obviously, but to do that. And actually more physical scenes because Ellie is obviously more physically fit in season 2. I love stunt stuff, and like waking up with bruises the next day, and finding myself with a black eye, just because it feels like so good to have done it. So I’m looking forward to doing that stuff, and also the Dina storyline. Because obviously, I had the one episode in season 1 with Ellie and Riley, but to have it as a storyline throughout the whole of the second game in terms of Ellie and Dina is really exciting.“
Dina is the name of Ellie’s partner in the video game.
The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for.
For the HBO series, Pedro Pascal plays Joel, who is “tormented by past trauma and failure. He must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity”. He is joined in the cast by Bella Ramsey as Ellie, “a 14-year-old orphan who has never known anything but a ravaged planet and who struggles to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging… as well as the newfound reality that she may be the key to saving the world”; Anna Torv as Tess, “a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world”; Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy, “a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world”; Merle Dandridge as Marlene, “the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime”; Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah; Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, “a rebel in a quarantine zone”; Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett as Bill and Frank, “two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town”; and Storm Reid as Ellie’s best friend Riley.
Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who did the motion-capture performances for Joel and Ellie in the video game, are also in the cast of the show. Baker plays James, “a senior member of a group of settlers who must fight to keep their community alive in the face of increasingly brutal odds.” Baker also hosts a podcast that serves as a companion to the TV series. Johnson’s character is Anna, “a pregnant woman, alone and on the run, who must give birth under the most terrifying of circumstances.”
The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and game developer Naughty Dog. Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann serve as executive producers alongside Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions.
We recently heard that Kaitlyn Dever from Booksmart and No One Will Save You may have a prominent role in The Last of Us season 2 as a character named Abby Anderson.
Are you looking forward to seeing Bella Ramsey back in action for The Last of Us season 2? Who would you like to see play Dina? Let us know by leaving a comment below.