Maisie Williams Could've Played Ellie In The Last Of Us
In one of the great "what if?" castings we'll never get to see, it turns out Game of Thrones legend Maisie Willaims was once tipped to play Ellie in a live-action version of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us.
The irony is that while fellow Thrones-er Nikolaj Coster-Waldau became many fans' pick to play Joel Miller, the eventual roles of Ellie and Joel went to Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal - having also both starred on HBO's fantasy epic.
How Close Was Maisie Williams To Playing Ellie In The Last Of Us?
Click to enlargeFirst released in 2013, the original The Last of Us was universally praised for reinventing the survival horror genre - meaning it was quickly primed for a live-action movie adaptation.
Although The Last of Us died a death in movie form, it was reborn at HBO as a nine-part series under and Chernobyl's Craig Mazin serving as showrunner and Game Director Neil Druckmann as Executive Producer.
Way back when, Evil Dead and Spider-Man's Sam Raimi was supposed to produce the movie, however, that was just one iteration. Things changed a lot over the years, but in 2014, Williams told IGN "hell yeah" to playing Ellie.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter claims that Druckmann actively met with Williams to discuss the project at one point. Apparently, the team met "dozens and dozens" of actors, with Booksmart's Kaitlyn Dever also being in the running.
The site concludes that by the time HBO took over and things shifted to a series, "Any former possible candidates had aged out of consideration." It's sad that Williams was "too old" to play Ellie, but with her now being 25 and Ramsey being 19, it makes sense.
How Did Bella Ramsey Get The Part Of Ellie?
Following her breakout role as Lyanna Mormont of Game of Thrones, Ramsey was announced as our live-action Ellie in early 2021.
Filming for The Last of Us only took place in July 2021, which would've made Ramsey 17 at the time. This is a bit of a leap from Ellie's supposed age of 14 in the first game, but at least it's passable.
When Ramsey was cast, it was reported that Mahershala Ali was offered the role of Joel when Matthew McConaughey turned it town. It was later said that while Ali circled an unknown part, it was never finalised. The rest... is history.
Despite the show not even being out yet, some are demanding we recast Ramsey with an older actor for the inevitable season 2. It's true that there's a five-year time jump between games, but with the first season presumably only covering a portion of the first title, there's no need to recast.
While we can only imagine what it would've been like having Arya Stark playing Ellie in The Last of Us, at least we know Little Miss Mormont has the stones to carry the role.
