Bella Ramsey: The Last of Us season 2 is “darker”

Bella Ramsey got her breakout role as the fierce Lady Lyanna Mormont on Game of Thrones, but it wasn’t until she played Ellie on HBO’s zombie show The Last of Us that she became something of a household name.

The first season of The Last of Us was a huge hit, and fans are eager to see what Ellie and her surrogate father Joel (Pedro Pascal) get up to next. With the Hollywood writers strike in full swing, it’s pencils down on season 2, but Ramsey tells Vanity Fair that production could start as early as the end of the year.

I assume she means that production could begin if the strike is resolved, which is anybody’s guess. If this thing drags on there’s no telling when shooting might start.

Bella Ramsay worries that Pedro Pascal’s “daddy” phase has “gone too far”

But we do know basically what will happen in season 2, since it’s based on Naughty Dog’s video game The Last Of Us Part II. “It’s darker,” Ramsey said. “It’s really a story about revenge, and a continuation from the first season about the dangers of unconditional love.”

“Darker” may an understatement. The second Last of Us game gets brutal, to the point where it bitterly divided fans upon its release on the PlayStation 4 in 2020. I’m very curious to see how TV audiences react to the events. I just hope we don’t have to wait until 2026 to see them.

In the meantime, Ramsey is singing the praises of her costar Pedro Pascal, whom the internet has embraced as its “daddy.”

“I very much played into it at the beginning, but now I’m worried it’s gone too far,” Ramsay said. “I don’t know whether he’s still loving it; I need to ask him. He’s a global phenomenon as he should be, because he’s pretty spectacular.”

Pascal has plenty to keep him busy while he and Ramsey wait to return to The Last of Us set. He voices the Mandalorian on The Mandalorian (he’s not so much in the suit anymore) and he just joined the cast of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel. As for Ramsey, you can next see her in the BBC prison drama Time.

If Ramsey has her way, she’ll be on our screens for a long time to come. “I felt immediately at home on set. It’s the first time I ever felt I properly belonged somewhere,” she said. “It wasn’t even like, ‘I want to do it forever’—I was like, ‘I have to.’ There’s no other option.”

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