The Last Of Us limited series adaptation casts Bella Ramsey as Ellie

HBO’s highly-anticipated limited series adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game The Last Of Us is moving forward with Bella Ramsey coming aboard as Ellie.

The 17-year-old actress will return to HBO, after playing Lyanna Mormont on Game of Thrones and, more recently, Angelica on Season 2 of His Dark Materials.

Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is writing the script and executive producing alongside Neil Druckmann, the game’s writer and creative director, via THR.

The Last Of Us was first released on the Playstation 3 in 2013, and took the gaming world by storm, selling 1.3 million units in its first week and over 17 million by 2018.

The game is set 20 years after a pandemic wiped out most of the world, centering on Ellie, who may be integral to curing the pandemic, and a smuggler named Joel.

Ramsay is playing Ellie, a 14-year-old orphan, who struggles with learning she may have a big role to play in saving the world as she knows it.

The game is considered by many to be one of the greatest of all time, which lead to the sequel, The Last Of Us Part II, released in June 2020.

The sequel sold more than 4 million copies in its first weekend, making it one of the fastest-selling PS4 games.

Before this new HBO series came to fruition, the game was previously in development as a movie adaptation at Sony Pictures.

Sam Raimi was slated to direct the movie, with another Game of Thrones star, Maisie Williams, then eyed to play Ellie.

The movie never came together, though, with the television adaptation announced in March 2020, expected to cover the first game and possibly parts of the sequel.

There had been rumors recently that Mahershala Ali was offered a role, though sources claim that while he was eyeing a unspecified role, a deal was never made.

Mazin and Druckmann will executive produce alongside Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, and Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions. 

Ramsey also voiced the title character in the Netflix animated series Hilda, which debuted its second season in December.

She’s attached to play the title character in writer-director Lena Dunham’s Catherine, Called Birdy, alongside Billie Piper and Andrew Scott.