From its lavish costumes and ginormous sets to bloody battles, Game of Thrones set a precedent for big-budget storytelling on the small screen. One person who knows all about it is 18-year-old Bella Ramsey, who portrayed the outspoken Lyanna Mormont from seasons 6 through 8. Now, however, the actress has moved on to a new role as Ellie in HBO’s upcoming zombie series The Last of Us, adapted from the popular video games by Naughty Dog. Ramsey believes this series beats out Game of Thrones as the “biggest thing” she’s done in her career thus far.
Of course, in Game of Thrones, Lyanna Mormont wasn’t central to the show. Whereas in The Last of Us, Ellie is the main character alongside Joel (Pedro Pascal). When the world is overrun by a fungal infection that turns humans into fast, flesh-eating monsters, Ellie is the only person who appears immune to the virus. Joel is chosen to escort her across the country to a group called the Fireflies, where there are doctors who can use her to create a vaccine.
Just like HBO did with Westeros, the network has spared no expense in building impeccable sets to make the streets of America into a zombie-infested wasteland 20 years into the apocalypse. In fact, The Last of Us has officially become the largest production in Canadian history. “[The Last of Us] does definitely feel like the biggest thing I have done and I have to not think about that too much as it freaks me out a little bit,” Ramsey told BBC News of her experience on the mammoth 10-month production. “When I got over here I had two weeks’ quarantine alone with my thoughts and I had to not think about the scale of it.”
Given the HBO connection, there are a few familiar faces from Game of Thrones involved in the show. Both of the protagonists — Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell) and Ramsey — had roles in the fantasy show. Behind the camera, a former Thrones executive producer is also on board. “Game of Thrones was the first thing I ever did and that was HBO. The same exec Carolyn Strauss on that is also producing this, so it feels like it’s come full circle – it’s really nice,” Ramsey said.
If HBO’s The Last of Us gets anywhere near the success of Game of Thrones, we’re in for a treat!
Ramsey believes The Last of Us is faithful to the video game
On-screen adaptations of video games haven’t had the best reputation over the years. Assassin’s Creed, Hitman, Doom, Warcraft — the list goes on. But The Last of Us is looking to break through and become the next big zombie franchise on TV. Indeed, the rich storytelling of the game very much lends itself to a TV adaptation. Ramsey thinks gamers will be pleased with how things turn out.
"There are quite a few fans of the game in the crew and they’ve said lots of things are very, very similar to the game, lots of the sets feel like they are walking into the video game, so that’s good I guess. Apart from that I have to keep a lot of it pretty quiet."
Recently, loads of pictures from filming have been posted online, showing off the spectacular sets. It’s currently unknown when HBO’s The Last of Us will release. Filming is set to wrap in June 2022, which indicates a potential release date of late 2022 or early 2023. But for now, we have only to wait, and play the games again in the meantime!
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