HBO’s adaptation of Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed video-game The Last of Us has been shooting since last summer but that doesn’t mean that someone new can’t join the cast. It’s been reported that Storm Reid (Euphoria) has joined the cast of The Last of Us series as Riley Abel.
Riley first appeared in The Last of Us: Left Behind, a DLC to the original game. Taking place several weeks before the events o the first game, Left Behind followed Ellie as she spent time with her best friend Riley in an abandoned mall in Boston. It stands to reason that Storm Reid will appear as Ellie in flashback scenes in The Last of Us series. Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), who executive produces The Last of Us series alongside Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, took to Twitter to welcome Storm Reid to the cast.
The Last of Us series takes place “20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed by a deadly virus. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone to the Fireflies, a cure-searching organization. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.” Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) will star as Joel alongside Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Ellie. In addition to Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Storm Reid, The Last of Us series will also feature Anna Torv, Gabriel Luna, Nick Offerman, Nico Parker, Jeffrey Pierce, Merle Dandrige, and Murray Bartlett.