Bella Ramsey is ‘really excited’ to explore lesbian relationship in The Last of Us
Bella Ramsey will be back as Ellie in the second season of The Last of Us. (Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic/Axelle)
With the hit post-apocalyptic series The Last of Us already renewed for another outing, actor Bella Ramsey who plays Ellie has shared her excitement over the lesbian relationship storyline that will most likely play throughout the second season of The Last of Us.
Given that The Last of Us, (the TV series), has thus far been praised for its faithfulness to its source material, we can expect to, at least broadly, see the plot of season two follow the story of the game’s sequel.
One of these plots is the romantic story between the series’ protagonist Ellie and her companion, Dina.
Strung out on a brutal quest for revenge across Jackson, Seattle and Santa Barbara, Ellie and Dina’s relationship is one of the only points of levity in part two’s much more harrowing tone, (yes, more harrowing than the first game) and Ramsey is poised with eagerness to explore that.
“I’m really excited, to be honest for the Ellie/ Dina story,” the actor told Josh Horowitz on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast. “I’ve watched a cut together, someone’s made a phenomenal – I don’t know how they do it – like an amazing edit of just the gameplay, like Ellie and Dina’s love story. So I’m excited to play that out.”
Ramsey also touched on Ellie and Joel’s bond, which becomes strained in the five-year gap between the events at the end of the first game and the beginning of the second, which looks to be covered in the second season.
“[I’m also looking forward to] the complexity of her relationship with Joel and how that gets decidedly more complex, and I’m looking forward to that. And the violence that ensues is thrilling in a way, to get to maybe explore that in a really safe environment. It will be cool. But I am nervous about it too.”
For anyone who’s played the game, they’ll know exactly what “violence” Ramsey is referring to, and exactly why Ramsey is “nervous about being potentially without Pedro for a while” during The Last of Us follow-up.
“It’s gonna be really sad.”
That it is.
Aside from the events of Bella Ramsey’s character, fans of the game will also know that The Last of Us: Part Two follows dual protagonist Abby’s story.
No spoilers on Abby’s role to be found here, but her plotline does involve her entanglement with the vicious, cult-like Seraphites, or Scars as they’re known to Abby’s militia group, and her eventual alliance with two young defectors from the group.
Yara and Lev are both fleeing the cult because the latter decides to shave off all his hair and the group subsequently decides to punish him.
As the game progresses and Abby’s bond with the two grows, we learn that the reason Lev cut his hair is because he was born as Lily – and the Scars, it turns out, are less tolerant of trans people than far-right groups in America today.
While Ramsey didn’t touch on Lev or Abby’s appearance, the fact that she seems to have confirmed Dina and Ellie’s relationship is a hopeful nod to the other diversity represented in the second game, and therefore second season.
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