September 26 is “The Last of Us Day,” and what better way to celebrate than some casting news?
The HBO adaptation’s coming up on its third and final season, and some familiar faces are joining the cast. Laura Bailey and Ian Alexander, who respectively played Abby and Lev in The Last of Us Part II(the game), will be popping up in the show. Bailey will portray Elizabeth, a leader of the Seraphites, a religious faction that’s one of that game’s major groups. Meanwhile, Alexander is Paco, one half of a “friendly duo” who make up the Heroes of the Highway—his partner-in-help being Joey, as played by John Goodman.
Prior seasons of The Last of Us have made sure to bring in actors from the games, most of them playing original characters. (The most famous of these being Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the games, playing her mother.) Bailey and Alexander’s inclusion here continues the trend, albeit with some extra baggage: Part II‘s pre-release leak revealed Abby killed Joel, leading to players harassing Bailey and threatening her child, something she’s previously spoken about. As for Lev, he is a trans kid (and former Seraphite) who becomes Abby’s companion on her side of the game’s story, which caused its own separate discourse at the time.
In the show, Abby is played by Kaitlyn Dever, with Kyriana Kratter set to play Lev. Season three of The Last of Us will land sometime in 2027 on HBO.
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