Production is now underway on HBO's adaptation of Naughty Dog's award-winning The Last of Us video game in Alberta, Canada, and Gabriel Luna recently shared our first behind-the-scenes image from the set. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star is set to play Tommy Miller in the series, but the actor who provided the voice of Tommy in the games has now joined the cast as a different character.
Deadline reports that Jeffrey Pierce will recur as Perry, "a rebel in a quarantine zone." Murray Bartlett and Con O’Neil have also joined the cast as Frank and Bill, "two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town."
They join Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as Tommy's brother Joel, and Bella Ramsay (Game of Thrones) as Ellie. Merle Dandridge (The Night Shift, Sons of Anarchy, The Flight Attendant) is also on board as Marlene, the Firefly resistance movement leader she voiced in the games, while Nico Parker (Dumbo) will play Joel's daughter Sarah.
The Last of Us is set 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed and centers on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for a deadly pandemic. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the 14-year-old girl out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the game's creator Neil Druckmann are writing and executive producing the show. The first season will adapt the events of the original game, but is also expected to include elements of the sequel. Druckmann recently confirmed that the series will take some liberties with the story.