Bella Ramsey on Owning Ellie as The Last of Us Turns the Page

Bella Ramsey says stepping back into Ellie for the second season of HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama reshaped how they work, describing the role’s impact on their craft as profound in a new conversation published this week. The reflections arrive after a spring run that ended May 25 and placed Ellie at the center of the story’s most contested choices, with production having spanned much of 2024 in British Columbia and the series already charting its next chapter.

Ramsey has emphasized that the most demanding day on set was not the season’s headline shock but a quiet scene in Episode 3, when Ellie returns to Joel’s house and breaks down while taking in the traces he left behind. They described filming intimate grief in a crowded room as more taxing than staging the season’s violence, drawing on a year of shared work with Pedro Pascal to find the right emotional register.

The showrunners have defended the decision to place Joel’s killing early in the run as a narrative spark rather than a late-season twist, arguing that delaying an expected moment would only stretch anticipation instead of serving Ellie’s arc. They also noted that Pascal would continue to appear in memory and flashback, a choice intended to keep the bond between the characters present even as the plot pivots.

Audience response was split online, with episodes drawing thousands of user ratings and waves of review-bombing tied to both structural changes from the game and backlash to Ellie and Dina’s relationship. Critics, by contrast, broadly praised the season’s performances and direction, calling it an ambitious escalation that gives Ramsey command of the narrative.

Since the finale, the series has been renewed for a third season while recognition has grown around the lead performance. Ramsey secured a second nomination for lead actor in a drama at the 2025 Emmys, a milestone for an openly nonbinary performer, as the franchise moves toward adapting the remainder of the second game. A premiere window for the next season has not been announced.