The Last Of Us Introduces The Best Part Of The Games
The Last of Us Season 1 finale will give fans their first look at Anna, Eliie's mother, played by the video game voice actress Ashley Johnson.
When a video game is adapted into a series, showrunners risk deviating from the source material to imagine a much larger narrative that spans multiple seasons. While this is often the case, showrunner Craig Mazin and creator Neil Druckmann are getting back into the lore of the video game that inspired The Last of Us HBO series by folding in plot points they have not yet explored, according to Deadline. The buzz surrounding the season 1 finale involves the introduction of Ellie‘s Mother, Anna, a character in the video game series that is now played by Ellie’s original actress. .
Ashley Johnson will portray Anna in The Last of Us, and she’s more than familiar with the story. Johnson had a heavy hand in producing the video game of the same name by providing Ellie’s voice and motion capture. In the HBO series, Ellie is portrayed by Bella Ramsey.
Anna’s character is instrumental in explaining crucial plot points that have yet to be explained in The Last of Us. The post-apocalyptic drama occurs 20 years after a mass fungal infection known as the Cordyceps infection collapses society. The story follows Ellie, who is immune to the infection and may be humanity’s only hope to create a vaccine that will put humanity on the mend.
By introducing Anna to The Last of Us, Mazin and Druckmann hope to explore Ellie’s origins and resistance to the infection. We don’t know much about Anna aside from the fact that she died within a day of giving birth to Ellie and was the leader of the Fireflies, a militia group that revolted against the military while trying to develop a vaccine during the early stages of the pandemic. Because her story in the video game is mostly just a reference point, Mazin and Druckmann are excited that they can extrapolate from the source material and carry the narrative into the second season.
Season 1 of The Last of Us has mostly followed Joel (Pedro Pascal) and his mission to smuggle Ellie out of the quarantine zone and across the United States. Joel and Ellie have one goal in mind, and it’s survival; they need to figure out Ellie’s immunity and figure out whether they can save humanity from the infection that has ravaged the world for the last 20 years. By elaborating on Ana’s story in the second season, we will learn more about the inner workings of the Fireflies leading the resistance against the oppressive government.
The Last of Us is setting streaming records on HBO, boasting over a billion minutes watched on just the first four episodes alone, and the series continues to climb in ratings. And the numbers don’t lie; when you have creators that truly care about the story they’re telling, source material that is fertile ground for expansion, and the on-screen chemistry between Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, you truly have a formula for success.
