On January 15th, 2023, The Last of Us was aired. In April of 2025, the second season was released. However, it didn’t go all that well this time. I have personally not had the time to watch this show yet to give a full review; however, I have seen an issue with the show’s casting amongst the whole fan base. For a bit of background, the show is about America being taken over by zombies, followed by a fungus outbreak. A survivor, Joel, takes charge of a 14-year-old girl, Ellie, who is seen as the hope of humanity. This is a very intriguing storyline that has been with fans since 2013, when the video game the show is based on came out on the PlayStation Store.
The casting is where problems start to occur. The show can’t fully be hated on because of one of their actors. Specifically, Joel’s actor: Pedro Pascal. People were very pleased with this decision because of the similarities in the characters. Where the issue arises is in Ellie’s character, played by Bella Ramsey. People do not appreciate how the show went about picking the actress. The biggest issue here is that Bella Ramsey does not look like Ellie. Here’s what Luke Winkie from Slate magazine had to say about Bella Ramsey, “Ramsey has smaller eyes, darker hair, and a different facial bone structure—one that’s, to be frank, less common among Hollywood’s stars—than that of the character found in the mother text”. One thing that Winkie points out that really sticks with me is that there are plenty of actors who look more like Ellie. Just to name a few, Cailee Spaeny, Kaitlyn Dever, Maisie Williams, Sophia Lillis, Elsie K. Fisher, and Kiernan Shipka. These are all the other actors who went for Ellie. Fans online express that any of the other candidates would be an amazing pick. People just think HBO closed their eyes, spun in a circle, and chose Bella Ramsey. It says further into the article that, “a much superior Ellie was hiding in plain sight. Her name is Cailee Spaeny, and she is known for her roles in Priscilla, Alien: Romulus, and Civil War”. Ultimately, due to Bella Ramsey’s facial features and plenty of other excellent candidates to play the role, fans are not happy with how the show chose to cast Ellie’s character.
*If you would like to read more about this topic, including where most quotes were found for this article, check out Luke Winkie’s article from Slate. https://slate.com/culture/2025/04/the-last-of-us-season-2-ellie-bella-ramsey-cailee-spaeny-casting-fan-controversy.html
