Following the announcement of several new cast members last week, HBO has revealed that it has cast Mindhunter and Fringe actress Anna Torv in the role of Tess in its upcoming The Last of Us series. Torv will play Tess opposite Mandalorian and Narcos actor Pedro Pascal as Joel, as well as Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey as Ellie.
From the looks of it, Tess’ character is relatively unchanged from the original game. Deadline describes Tess as “a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world”. It also confirms that, like the game, Tess tasks Joel with the mission of smuggling Ellie out of the quarantine zone to the Fireflies. The series will revolve around the two characters’ “brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.”
Last week, three other cast members were announced including the original voice actor for Tommy, though he will not reprise his role in the series (that one goes to Narcos actor Gabriel Luna). Other confirmed characters include Bill and Frank, who will appear in the first six episodes of the ten-episode long first season. Whether or not this is in the form of flashbacks or a change to how the story plays out is unconfirmed. Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has confirmed that some of the plot points will deviate for the series, though it will stick pretty close to the first game. Regardless, for those who’ve played the original game and want to know more about Bill and his history, it’ll be interesting to see what they do with the two partners’ relationship.
Merle Dandridge, who voiced Marlene in the original game, will also join the series to reprise her role. And with the inclusion of Dumbo actress Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter, the HBO series boasts a pretty impressive cast of big-name actors. Sony and HBO are throwing all of their weight behind The Last of Us, so much so that they’ve reportedly invested “well over” eight figures per episode. Considering its 10-episode run, that’s more than $100 million for the whole series.
[Source: Deadline]
