Is Ellie Williams gay in HBO’s The Last of Us? Here’s what Bella Ramsey has said
Bella Ramsey as Ellie in The Last of Us season two. (HBO)
Bella Ramsey as Ellie in The Last of Us season two. (HBO)
As The Last of Us season two arrives on our screens, fans of the hit post-apocalyptic drama are chewing over what’s to come for survivalist Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
And, after the premiere of the first episode of season two, it’s clear that there’s romance on the cards.
Yes, Ellie is indeed gay in the original Naughty Dog videos games and HBO’s TV adaptation of The Last of Us. Not only does the show confirm it, it also embraces it.
Ellie’s queerness was first established in the 2014 Left Behind downloadable content and the HBO series further explored the story in season one, episode seven.
That episode, a standalone flashback, tells the story of Ellie and her best friend Riley (Storm Reid) at FEDRA’s boarding school.
In the episode, Ellie remembers being woken up by Riley. The pair go to an abandoned mall, spending the time laughing, talking, and playing games and they eventually kiss.
Then, the recently-released first episode of The Last of Us season two sees Ellie kiss a fellow resident in the community settlement she now lives in, a woman named Dina (played by Isabela Merced).
The kiss, witnessed by others in the community, sparks a homophobic comment and a reminder that it is a family event, prompting Joel (Pedro Pascal) to step in.
Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie, has previously opened up about the queer representation in The Last of Us, telling L’Officiel that it was “really nice” to have “two really queer episodes” in season one.
“Like, gay people exist, so why shouldn’t they exist in the apocalypse? I really liked that it didn’t feel tacked on,” they said.
“It was so integral to this story, and so organically done, that it didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, we’re just putting in these queer people for representation’. This is the story, and it’s just a story of two people loving each other, and it was really beautiful,” Ramsey told the outlet.
Bella Ramsey has also said that prior to landing the role it was Ellie’s character that really spoke to them, as Ellie was described as: “She’s gay and she doesn’t care.”
The Last of Us season two airs on Sundays on HBO in the US and Monday on Sky and NOW in the UK.
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