The season finale of HBO’s The Last of Us aired in the UK on Monday, bringing to a close of the most acclaimed television shows in recent memory. The hit post-apocalyptic drama – based on the 2013 video game of the same name – follows smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) and 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) on a treacherous journey across the United States after a mutated fungus has left the human race all but extinct.
Episode nine – titled Look for the Light – saw the unlikely duo reach their destination of Salt Lake City, Utah, where a group of doctors are working to find a cure for the Cordyceps infection. The finale reached an impressive 8.2m viewers when it aired in the US on Sunday night, marking a new series high.
Co-creators and executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have assembled a stellar cast for the series, centred around stars Pascal and Ramsey. The showrunners were also keen to have stars of the video game return for its live-action adaptation.
READ MORE: The Last of Us differences between the final episode and the game
The series has seen Merle Dandridge reprise her role from the game as Firefly leader Marlene, while Jeffrey Pierce – the originator of Joel’s brother Tommy – played ill-fated villain Perry in the Kansas City story arc. Original Joel actor Troy Baker had a supporting role in episode eight as James, a member of a group of cannibalistic survivors living in an old resort called Silver Lake.
But in the season finale, the original Ellie actress makes an appearance, too. Voice and motion-capture actress Ashley Johnson – who played the teenage protagonist in The Last of Us video game and its 2020 sequel – featured in the episode’s dramatic opening scenes.
Johnson starred in a flashback sequence as Ellie’s mother, Anna. The episode opens with a pregnant Anna seen running through the woods and hiding in a rural farmhouse before being attacked and infected with the Cordyceps fungus.
Discover, learn, grow. We are Curiously. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
She gives birth to Ellie while fighting off and killing the infected, but not before being infected herself. This explains how Ellie was born with immunity to the infection, something not explained in the video game.
Johnson, 39, is an accomplished voice and motion-capture actress, having earned two BAFTA Games Awards for her portrayal as Ellie – one for The Last of Us and one for its add-on The Last of Us: Left Behind. She also earned nominations at The Game Awards 2020 and the 2020 BAFTA Games Awards for her performance in The Last of Us Part II.
She has appeared in many live-action films and TV shows and provided the voice for a host of animated characters. The Californian actress started her career as a child actress on US sitcom Growing Pains, in which she starred in 48 episodes between 1990 and 1992.
As an adult, she has starred in crime-dramas The Killing and Blindspot. Her film roles include appearing alongside Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt in 2000’s What Women Want, a supporting role in 2011 period drama The Help, and the 2012 romantic-comedy Much Ado About Nothing.
She had a minor role as a waitress in 2012 superhero epic The Avengers. Johnson has also lent her voice to countless animated shows including King of the Hill, Family Guy and Ben 10: Alien Force.
Her other video game credits include the English version of Final Fantasy Explorers and Lego Marvel's Avengers.
READ NEXT:
- 'Horrendous' scenes as man 'knocked unconscious with single punch' outside pub
- Police didn't have 'single piece of evidence' to support woman's claims she'd been groomed by Asian gang
- Huge police cordon in place on road with forensics on scene
- Terrified TUI passengers in 'floods of tears' after pilot aborts Manchester Airport landing during blizzard
- Illegal shisha bar which 'flouted the law for years' shut down as owner slapped with huge fine
