“I felt like I was dealing with the mythology behind all this,” he said.Ībbasi praised Johnson for her fearless and willing attitude. Abbasi was concerned their appearances would be too gimmicky and more about fan service, but he said they brought an aura of authenticity to their episodes. Troy Baker - who plays Joel in the video game franchise - also makes an appearance in Episode 8. Ultimately, he said, “it just seemed instinctively correct” to cast Johnson.Īli Abbasi, who directed the final two episodes of the season, said he was initially skeptical about hiring actors from the video game. “The next day he and I both have this like hive-mind, calling each other at the same time, saying, ‘You know who should be Anna is Ashley.’”Īt first, Mazin said he felt there was a risk that Johnson’s casting might feel a little too cheeky or meta, especially for video game fans. We’re doing that for sure,’” said Craig Mazin, the series co-creator. “He told me the story of how Ellie is born and I was like, ‘Oh we’re doing that. Johnson was set to play Anna in the clip, but it fell apart and that performance never materialized until Sunday’s episode. The leader of the Fireflies, Marlene, promises to double their stolen cache in return for smuggling a teenage girl, Ellie, to Fireflies hiding outside quarantine.ĭLC footage added in just before 'Winter' chapter.According to Druckmann, the blueprint for Anna’s story was an animated short meant to promote the first “Last of Us” game. The pair hunt down a local gangster to recover a stolen weapons cache.īefore Tess kills him, the smuggler reveals that he traded the goods to the Fireflies, a rebel group fighting against the quarantine zone authorities. Joel works as a smuggler with his friend Tess in a quarantine zone in Boston. In the 20 years that follow, much of civilization is destroyed by the infection survivors live in heavily policed quarantine zones, independent settlements, and nomadic groups. Joel, his brother Tommy, and Sarah attempt to flee the chaos.

One night, an outbreak of a mutant Cordyceps fungus ravages the United States, which transforms its human hosts into cannibalistic monsters. In 2013, Joel is a single father living near Austin, Texas with his twelve-year-old daughter Sarah.

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