Nick Offerman will play Bill in HBO’s The Last of Us show
By Dan Selcke
HBO continues to fill out the cast of The Last of Us, its hugely expensive adaptation of Naughty Dog’s popular video game series. This time, it’s drafting Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman to play a hardened survivalist holding out 20 years into a zombie apocalypse, which sounds about right.
Yes, The Last of Us is yet another zombie apocalypse story, but it’s a quiet, character-driven one that HBO is giving a lot of care. Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is producing the show along with Neil Druckmann, the guy behind the video games.
Pedro Pascal plays the lead role of Joel, who lost his daughter when society fell. Fellow Game of Thrones veteran Bella Ramsey (Lyanna Mormont) is Ellie, a young girl who may be resistant to the deadly fungus that has brought the world to heel. Joel goes on a mission to escort Ellie across a zombie-ravaged United States to get her to people who can study her immunity and hopefully get humanity out of this mess. They meet characters like Bill along the way.
The A.V. Club describes Bill as a guy riding out the apocalypse with his partner Frank, but if I’m remembering the game correctly Frank has already split when Joel and Ellie meet up with Bill in his booby trap-strewn hidey hole of a town. We’ll see how the show approaches the character.
Is Nick Offerman a good fit for The Last of Us?
Offerman may mainly be known for comedy roles, but he also has a reputation for being a gruff, do-it-yourself kind of guy — he cohosts the arts and crafts show Making It with Amy Poehler — so I could see him surviving after the fall of soceity.
There’s no release date for The Last of Us yet, but filming is underway. It’s an elaborate production, so don’t expect it before late 2022 at the earliest.
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