Pedro Pascal

HBO’s confirmation of series three comes just days before Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey return as Ellie and Joel for the second instalment.

The faithful adaptation of Naughty Dog’s game series The Last of Us follows the unlikely bond between 14-year-old Ellie and 40-year-old Joel in a post-apocalyptic world following a global pandemic. Believing her to be immune to the Cordyceps spores turning humans into evil half-mushrooms, they journey across a fungus-ridden America in the hopes of finding a cure.

Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and RTS award-winner Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) are back as Joel and Ellie. Though they ended series one as friends, five years on, things have deteriorated.

With both of them looking noticeably more weathered in the trailer, Ellie snarls at Joel:

“You swore.”

Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and RTS award-winner Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) will both reprise their roles in the hit video game adaptation. In series one, broadcast in 2023, Joel (Pascal) was tasked with taking Ellie (Ramsey) across America after it had been ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. Ellie is immune to the ‘cordyceps’ disease, meaning she may be the secret to creating a vaccine that saves humanity.

The first series of the video game adaptation was broadcast in 2023, and followed Joel (Pedro Pascal, The Mandalorian) as he took teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey, Game of Thrones) across a post-apocalyptic United States. Where most of humanity has fallen prey to a fungal infection, Ellie is immune to the ‘cordyceps’ disease. As such, the secret to creating a vaccine that could get the planet back to some semblance of normalcy may lie with her.

Fans celebrate 26 September as The Last of Us day, as the cordyceps virus infected their apocalyptic dystopian world on 26 September 2003 and kicked off the events of the series. To commemorate, Sky has released the trailer for The Last of Us series two, featuring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey reprising their roles as Joel and Ellie.