It’s been rumored for quite some time that Maisie Williams, best known as Arya Stark in “Game of Thrones,” would be playing Ellie in the Sam Raimi-produced The Last of Us adaptation.
In the below interview, shared by IGN UK, she explains that there’s currently no script so there’s still a way to go before anything’s confirmed, but as far as she’s concerned “it’s looking like, ‘yes'”.
“There was a whole thing that went on Twitter [of fans suggesting me for the role],” she explained. I didn’t know a lot about [the game]. I Googled it. Ashley Johnson — who did Ellie’s voice — [fans] asked her what she thought of me and she said, ‘That’s pretty much my dream.’ I don’t follow her but I was silently stalking her wondering what she thought of all this.
“So the way it was left is they want me to do it, and I want to do it.
“And when I got my American agent and he said, ‘If there’s anything you want to do, let us know’ — America’s got such that can-do attitude. That was the first time I came to him with anything. So he said he’d set us up for a meeting next time I’m in America. And they did. So I had a meeting with [producer] Sam Raimi and [game director] Neil Druckmann. And they said they’d love if you would moderate the panel at Comic-Con, but you’d need to watch the walk-through and know your s*** because there are massive fans of this and we wouldn’t want it to go wrong.
“I was doing so much work for Thrones that I didn’t want to half-arse do it, so I said I’m not going to [moderate]. They said fine, but they’re gonna announce they had talks. So the way it was left is they want me to do it, and I want to do it. But there’s no script, no director, and no anything else. So at this moment, it’s looking like, ‘Yes,’ but it’s still such early days. If they make it in 30 years, they can’t have a 40-year-old Ellie. So at the moment, it’s looking good, and I’d love to do it. Hell yeah.”
Creator Neil Druckmann is penning the screenplay, which is based on the game rather than an original story.
“The Last of Us” is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment on June 14, 2013 for the PlayStation 3. The player controls Joel (voiced and motion-captured by Troy Baker) escorting the young Ellie (Ashley Johnson) across a post-apocalyptic United States. The player uses firearms, improvised weapons and stealth to defend against hostile humans and zombie-like creatures infected by a mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus. – Wiki
