‘The Last of Us’ season 2: See the HBO series’ characters alongside their video game counterparts

Bella Ramsey as Ellie

Though just a pre-teen at the time, Bella Ramsey made soldiers quake in their boots as the silver-tongued Lyanna Mormont on Game of Thrones (2016–2019). Before The Last of Us, Ramsey appeared in Lena Dunham’s Catherine Called Birdy (2022) and voiced the title role in Netflix’s Hilda (2018-2023).

For their turn as fierce and vulnerable apocalypse survivor Ellie in season 1 of The Last of Us, Ramsey earned an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama nomination at the Emmys. In the games, the role was played to great acclaim by Ashley Johnson, who made a cameo in a season 1 flashback as Ellie’s mother.

Ellie begins season 2 in Jackson, Wyo., where she’s living as normal of a teenage life as one can in the world of The Last of Us. She has friends, crushes, and hobbies, but tension simmers beneath the surface of her relationship with Joel.

Pascal praised Ramsey’s authority on the set of season 2. “I think we all really looked to Bella this time around as far as the cast is concerned, and (there was) this kind of open permission to be ourselves and to partner together in the scenes, and I think that it is this sort of unspoken leadership that made it such an easy, horrifying place to step into,” he said during a SXSW panel earlier this month.

Pedro Pascal as Joel

Like Ramsey, Pascal’s big break came via Game of Thrones, which found him playing the Red Viper, Oberyn Martell. He’d been acting for decades prior to the role, but the Chilean-American actor is now leading tentpole projects like The Mandalorian (2019–present), Gladiator 2 (2024), and this year’s upcoming The Fantastic Four.

Pascal, taking over the role from Troy Baker, was nominated for an Emmy for his performance as Joel in season 1 of The Last of Us. He begins the season in Jackson, Wyo., with Ellie and his brother, Tommy (Luna), but he’s struggling with the lies he told his ward following their escape from the Firefly hospital at the end of season 1. He’s even begun seeing a therapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara).

Pascal addressed the “incredibly painful distance” between Joel and Ellie in an interview with Variety: “My mindset was grateful to be back and yet, at the same time, this experience, more than any other I’ve had, is hard for me to separate what the characters are going through and how it makes me feel, in a way that isn’t very healthy. And so I kind of feel their pain.”

Kaitlyn Dever as Abby

Kaitlyn Dever’s early career picked up steam with supporting roles on FX’s Justified (2011–2015) and ABC’s Last Man Standing (2011–2021), though it was her leading turn in Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart that took her to another echelon. Recently, she was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her performance in the Hulu miniseries Dopesick (2021). This year, she led the Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar.

Abby is a pivotal character in The Last of Us Part II, knocking over the dominos that make her the target of Ellie’s wrath. With an eye towards spoilers, HBO describes her as “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved.”

One major change between the game and the series concerns Abby’s physique. As played by the game’s Laura Bailey, Abby is imposing and very muscular. The bulk wasn’t as necessary for the series, per Druckmann. “There’s not as much violent action moment to moment,” he previously told EW. “It’s more about the drama. I’m not saying there’s no action here. It’s just, again, different priorities and how you approach it.”

Mazin, meanwhile, spoke to us about the value of taking a different approach than the game. “I, personally, think that there is an amazing opportunity here to delve into someone who is perhaps physically more vulnerable than the Abby in the game, but whose spirit is stronger,” he told us. “And then the question is, ‘Where does her formidable nature come from and how does it manifest?’ That’s something that will be explored now and later.”

Gabriel Luna as Tommy

Gabriel Luna is perhaps best known as Robbie Reyes (a.k.a. Ghost Rider) on ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Other notable credits include True Detective (2015), Love, Death & Robots (2022), and FUBAR (2023). He’s currently slated to appear in season 2 of Amazon Prime’s The Terminal List.

Luna’s Tommy, played in the games by Jeffrey Pierce, plays a bigger role in season 2 than he did in the story’s previous chapter. When last we saw him, the Army veteran was helping to lead the Jackson commune alongside his wife, Maria (Wesley), who was soon to deliver their first child. In the upcoming episodes, he’ll be a key player in the events that jeopardize the camp’s safety.

During a press conference moderated by Variety, Pascal noted that his scenes with Luna were a joy to play after being separated for much of season 1. “I had you there when I feel like a lot of the flesh of my character started to display itself and got to be played,” he said while addressing Luna. “So in season 2, it felt like a real natural building of what we had established as characters and as scene partners.”

Rutina Wesley as Maria

Rutina Wesley rose to prominence as Sookie’s pal Tara Thornton on HBO’s True Blood (2008–2014), and would go on to appear in a number of popular series, including Hannibal (2015), Arrow (2015–2017), and Queen Sugar (2016–2022).

Maria, a former assistant district attorney, leads the Jackson commune, having been democratically elected by its residents. In the games, the character was played by Ashley Scott.

In season 1, we learned Maria and Tommy got married in the years he was estranged from Joel, and that she was pregnant with his child. As season 2 photos make clear, their child is growing up fast.

“I loved Maria, particularly because she’s a born leader. She’s fierce and she has this calm stillness to her that I love,” Wesley previously told EW, adding that “she does look at Joel with a little bit of side-eye because she knows a lot of things about him.”

That side-eye may very well be justified as season 2 unfolds.

Isabel Merced as Dina

As a child, Isabela Merced led Nickelodeon’s 100 Things to Do Before High School (2014–2016) and appeared in films like Transformers: The Last Knight (2017) and Instant Family (2018). Since then, she played the title role in Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019) and dipped her toe in the world of horror with a supporting role in last year’s Alien: Romulus.

Dina, a teenager in the Jackson commune, is a key character in The Last of Us Part II, in which she’s played by Shannon Woodward. Ellie nurses a crush on Dina, but also struggles with Dina being the ex of Jesse (Young Manzino), one of her closest friends. It’s not a love triangle, per se, but it nevertheless serves to complicate things.

HBO describes her as “a free-wheeling spirit whose devotion to Ellie will be tested by the brutality of the world they inhabit.”

“I’m so excited for people to see my chemistry with Bella. Bella and I have so much chemistry. From the first day, it was there. There’s no work to be done,” Merced told Collider.

Young Manzino as Jesse

After a string of small roles in shows like Blue Bloods (2019) and Prodigal Son (2020), Young Manzino scored an Emmy nomination for his affecting turn as Paul on Netflix’s Beef (2023). This year, he appeared in A24’s Opus opposite Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich.

Jesse, an ex of Dina and a close friend to Ellie in the Jackson camp, is played by Stephen Chang in the game. He’s described by HBO as “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.”

Joe Pantoliano as Eugene

Joe Pantoliano’s been a consistent presence in film and television since the mid-’70s, though he’s likely best known for his Emmy-winning performance as Ralphie Cifaretto on The Sopranos (2001–2004). Recently, he reprised his character from Michael Bay’s Bad Boys franchise in Bad Boys For Life (2020) and Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024).

Like Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett in season 1 of The Last of Us, Pantoliano gets the opportunity to bring dimension to a character we only meet briefly in the game. In fact, all we see of Eugene in the game is a photo, though we do learn a bit about him from his abandoned cannabis den.

“I get excited when I see these opportunities,” Druckmann told Variety of the storyline. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Eugene that well!’ The story we told (in the game) was somewhat superficial. The way this character comes in really gets to the heart of Joel and Ellie and their relationship.”

Jeffrey Wright as Isaac

Jeffrey Wright is the winner of Emmy, Tony, and Golden Globe awards. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his turn in American Fiction (2023). He’s had leading roles on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (2013–2014) and Westworld (2016–2022), and has been a highlight of Wes Anderson’s latest films, The French Dispatch (2021) and Asteroid City (2023). Most recently, he played Commissioner Jim Gordon in The Batman (2022).

Another previous role of Wright’s? Isaac in The Last of Us Part II, which the actor will reprise for the upcoming season. His Isaac is, per HBO, “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy.”

Speaking with TV Insider, Wright said the season will offer more of Isaac’s backstory than we get in the games. He mostly remained tight-lipped, though. “Buckle up,” he warned.

Danny Ramirez as Manny, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Ariela Barer as Mel, and Spencer Lord as Owen

Abby isn’t staring down the post-apocalypse alone. As in the games, she’s joined by four close associates, here played by Spencer Lord (The Good Doctor), Ariela Barer (How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick), and Tati Gabrielle (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina).

Lord’s Owen, played by Almost Famous actor Patrick Fugit in the game, is a close friend of Abby’s who’s described as “a gentle soul trapped in a warrior’s body, condemned to fight an enemy he refuses to hate.” Mel, played in the game by Ashley Burch, is Owen’s girlfriend, as well as “a young doctor whose commitment to saving lives is challenged by the realities of war and tribalism.”

Gabrielle plays Nora, “a military medic struggling to come to terms with the sins of her past.” Nora’s played by Chelsea Tavares in the game.

Manny, played by Ramirez, is characterized as a “a loyal soldier whose sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most.” Alejandro Edda plays Manny in the game.

Catherine O’Hara as Gail

SCTV alum Catherine O’Hara has appeared in some of the best comedies of the last 40 years, including After Hours (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Home Alone (1990), and Best in Show (2000). She recently won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her turn as Moira Rose on Schitt’s Creek (2015–2020).

O’Hara’s Gail, a therapist to Joel, is a new addition to The Last of Us, having not appeared in either game. “I have an odd relationship with Pedro’s character,” O’Hara previously told EW. “You don’t quite know why she’s got… well, she’s got this edge to her, but it makes for some weird, good dark comedy, I think. So it’s there. I never want to deny the gift of humor.”