No, Bella Ramsey will definitely not be replaced as Ellie in The Last of Us, writers confirm

One of television’s biggest new stars has been plagued by an uncomfortable rumour for months. Now it’s been put to bed for good.

Bella Ramsey in the finale of The Last of Us. Picture: HBO/Foxtel/Binge

WARNINGS: Spoilers for The Last of Us below

The creators of The Last of Us want to make one thing unmistakably clear as they turn their attention to writing the show’s second season: no, Bella Ramsey will not be replaced.

British actor Ramsey plays co-protagonist Ellie in HBO’s adaptation of the critically acclaimed video game series, whose season finale aired on Monday on Binge.

Any initial doubts fans had about their casting (Ramsey identifies as non-binary) evaporated quickly as people saw them on screen, though some anxiety lingers about the transformation they will need to undergo for future seasons, which occur after a time jump and take Ellie to some darker, more violent places.

The character is 14 years old throughout the first season, and will be 19 in season two. Ramsey herself is currently 19. No dramas, right? Yet the youthful looks and slight stature that made Ramsey an ideal young Ellie continue to make some fans nervous.

Bella Ramsey in the season one finale of The Last of Us. Picture: HBO/Foxtel/Binge

Her character, Ellie, in The Last of Us Part II. Picture: PlayStation/Naughty Dog

Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are the opposite of nervous about Ramsey. They seem equal parts amused and exasperated by the speculation about Ellie being recast.

“Yeah, we’re exposing (Ramsey) to radiation. She’s in a very experimental process to accelerate her ageing. She’s smoking six packs of cigarettes a day. She’s on a pure whiskey and tainted beef diet,” Mazin quips when the subject is brought up.

“Let’s put this thing to rest, please,” says Druckmann.

“One of the things about the casting process that is tough is that we know everything (about the production), and nobody else knows anything,” Mazin explains.

“We know what we’re going to do – in terms of costume and make-up and hair. But more importantly, we also know the spirit and soul of the actor. And it’s tough, as a kind of parent of an actor, especially of someone who, when she joined us, she was 17. She’s only 19 now, which by the way is the age of Ellie in The Last of Us Part II.

“People were (initially) like, ‘She doesn’t look like the character,’ and I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Watch. Just watch what happens. And now they know.

“And I think there’s still this anxiety, this constant drumbeat of anxiety, and all I can say to people is I have so much anxiety myself about doing a good job on this. If you are anxious about something, then I’m probably anxious about it, which means we are talking about it and thinking about it.

“(Season two) will be different from the game. It will be different. Just as this season was different. Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be barely different at all. It will be its own thing, it won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show Neil and I want to make. We are making it with Bella.”

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Ramsey’s performance as Ellie has been critically acclaimed. Picture: Joe Maher/Getty Images

Before The Last of Us, Mazin was best known for writing the critically acclaimed series Chernobyl. Druckmann, having been creative director on the game series, is as invested in Ellie as any viewer. He likens Ramsey’s casting to that of Ashley Johnson, who played the character in the games.

“When we made the game, I felt we were incredibly lucky. It was like lightning in a bottle when we found Ashley Johnson, and I cannot imagine that version of Ellie being anybody else,” he says.

“And then somehow we got lightning in the bottle again with Bella, and we are extremely lucky to have Bella. The only reason we would ever, ever consider recasting Bella is if she said, ‘I don’t want to work with you guys anymore.’ And even then I’m not sure we would grant her that!”

Mazin and Druckmann addressed a couple more lingering questions about the show – read on for more of their thoughts.

Is there too little action?

The show’s version of Joel and Ellie spend much less of their time fighting or sneaking past enemies than their counterparts in the game. There are also large stretches of time in which no infected appear. That has popped up as a critique among fans, though Mazin and Druckmann are comfortable with the balance of action they produced.

“Part of the adaptation process is trying to figure out how to take source material that was built around gameplay and port it over to a medium that is passive,” says Mazin.

“And a lot of the gameplay centred on NPCs (non-player characters) that you have to get around – either avoid, stealth kill or just confront them head on, those are sort of your choices when you’re playing.

“And the NPCs were raiders or cannibals or FEDRA, or they were the infected, and so there’s a lot of fighting. I mean, I don’t know what your ultimate kill count is in a typical run of The Last of Us, but you know, it’s in the triple digits for sure.”

“It depends on your playstyle, but it is much higher than we would want for the show,” Druckmann adds.

“So we did, at times, have choices to make about how we wanted to present the infected,” Mazin continues.

Craig Mazin accepting an Emmy for his writing on Chernobyl. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Neil Druckmann accepting an award for Outstanding Achievement in Video Game Writing at the Writers Guild Awards in 2014. Picture: Getty Images/Alberto

The volume of infected may change in the upcoming seasons, however.

“I will say that, even though we were greenlit for one season of television (side note: HBO ordered a second season after two episodes had aired), I felt like we can’t just make a season of television without considering what would come after. There is more to come. And I think the balance is not always just about what’s within an episode, or even episode to episode, but season to season,” Mazin says.

“It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later, and perhaps different kinds. But within the episodes that we were concentrating on, I think ultimately we stressed the power of relationships, and trying to find significance within moments of action.

“So there may have been less action than some people wanted, because we couldn’t necessarily find significance for quite a bit of it. (There was also) a concern that it would be repetitive – you’re not playing it, you’re watching it. And although a lot of people do like to watch gameplay, it needs to be a little bit more focused and purposeful when we’re putting it on television.”

Druckmann further explains that every piece of action in the show “has to move character in some way”. If something didn’t move character forward and was there purely for “spectacle”, he says, it was “an easy cut”.

The dark side of unconditional love

The Last of Us has always been a story about love, though its hellish setting in a post-apocalyptic version of the United States, with infected shambling about and raiders always lurking, can occasionally obscure that fact.

Thematically, the thing that sets this story apart from others is its determination to examine the evil love can inspire, not just the good.

We spend the entire season hoping for Joel to overcome the grief and guilt he feels over his daughter’s death, and to allow himself to love Ellie. And that’s exactly what happens. But his love for Ellie is the catalyst for his shocking actions in the finale. Unwilling to let her die, he goes on a murder spree and wrecks any hope humanity had of developing a cure for the cordyceps fungus.

Joel is willing to doom the world to save one girl. He barely even hesitates. It is the only acceptable option for him.

“What it started with for the game was, how can we make the player feel the unconditional love that a parent feels for their child, and all this worry and fear and joy that can come with it? But then sometimes, when you love someone unconditionally, your logic goes out the window and you will do really horrible things to protect them,” Druckmann explains.

“So for us it was just like, OK, here are all the different pieces, the tools that we have within this story. How can we, with each episode, touch on that in some way?”

He points to episode three, featuring the decades-long romance between one-off characters Bill and Frank, as an example of the “beauty and joy” that can come from love.

Conversely, he cites Henry and Sam’s story to illustrate love’s darker side. Henry became a FEDRA informant and betrayed the rebel leader Michael, whom he deeply admired, because he was desperate for medicine to treat his brother. That then sent Michael’s sister, Kathleen, down a path of vengeance that would doom all of Kansas City.

“Unconditional love is something that we give way too much credit, like it’s the highest form of love,” Mazin says.

“Unconditional means literally no conditions. Including conditions whereby you really ought to be doing something that is not within the best interests of the person you love.

“I’m not suggesting that I have a hard opinion on how things go at the end. I don’t. I’m confused about it morally, I think it’s a difficult choice, I go back and forth. And I think a lot of people will go back and forth on it.”

“For the most part, viewers have been in alignment with Joel as far as what he’s trying to do, and protecting Ellie, that’s such a noble cause,” Druckmann adds.

But now we’ve seen “the darkness he’s capable of”, that alignment is being challenged.

The Last of Us is available to stream on Binge