Fans Divided By First Look At The Last Of Us Series' Ellie And Joel
It's the dawn of a new era of television, as HBO's The Last of Us series reveals a first look at Ellie and Joel. Coming from the network that brought you the likes of The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, The Last of Us has nabbed two GoT alumni in the form of Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal.
With The Last of Us poised to be our next big video game adaptation that could follow in the footsteps of Netflix's The Witcher, there's plenty of buzz surrounding the series. Hype is at fever pitch, and now, we've got a first look at the leading stars in their roles.
What do Ellie and Joel look like in The Last of Us?
Posting on Twitter, both Naughty Dog and The Last of Us head honcho Neil Druckmann shared a single shot of Ellie and Joel. Encapsulating the third-person perspective of the games, we only see the pair from behind - with a wrecked plane in the distance. Still, this brief glimpse gives fans a taste of The Last of Us' aesthetic. In particular, gamers have loved little details like the pins on Ellie's backpack.
The wider fandom was divided by the first look at the series. Some were over the moon, as one wrote, "How does a single photo make me cry omg I love this". Another added, "This means so much to me. Seeing my favorite video game franchise in live action. This is everything", and "I wondered if we would get a sneak peek today!!! Looks F**king awesome!"
Others weren't as convinced. Someone said, "Ellie does not look like the real in game Ellie at all wtf are you thinking". More critics added, "I’m not sure what to think of this. I’ll watch it and I hope it’s good. But I don’t really see the need to make this. The game is brilliant", and "If they were passionate about it they would have listened to the decade-long fancasting (Dever, Coster-Waldau) but instead we get these totally different-looking characters out of left field. Make it make sense."
What else do we know about The Last of Us?
Despite what anyone thinks, The Last of Us is sure to be huge. Only recently, Druckmann himself joined the series as a director. There's an all-star lineup of directors, with Druckmann being the icing on the cake. Elsewhere, actor Jeffrey Pierce called the scripts breathtaking. Remembering that Pierce voiced Tommy in the games, that's high praise indeed.
All in all, The Last of Us is galloping toward its release next year. There's sure to be a boom in subscriptions for HBO Max, with all eyes on how Chernobyl's Craig Mazin will handle the source material as showrunner. However, with TLoU fans being notoriously critical of the games, it looks like this will also transfer over to the show. Here's hoping the ambitious project has the ability to stay afloat in this sea of negativity.
Check out our The Last of Us guides here:
The Last of Us 3 release date | The Last of US TV release date