Craig Mazin, the showrunner on HBO’s The Last of Us series, has responded to criticism that Bella Ramsey looks too young to portray Ellie in the second season.
For those who didn’t play the games, Ellie was 14-years-old in the original The Last of Us and the sequel picked up when she was 19, and as such the character looked noticeable older in The Last of Us Part II. For Season Two of the show, Mazin acknowledged “the difficulty that some people have where they say, ‘She looked like she was 14 in season one. She still looks roughly the same to us, even though now she’s 19.’”
Related Content — Upcoming PS5 Games 2025: The Best PS5 Games Coming Soon
Some people do change quite dramatically and some people don’t. I’ve been looking at Bella’s face for years while editing, and I can see that she’s certainly grown. I’m interested in the emotional maturity, and the change in personality.
Mazin saids that he’s “watched Bella grow and become independent and start to find her own two feet separate and apart from her parents,” and explained it’s now about “how do I figure out how to be my own person now and test that full independence?”
So, I understand where people are coming from, but when they watch this year, I think they’re going to see the difference.
[Source – The Hollywood Reporter via Eurogamer]