Casting continues on HBO‘s “The Last of Us” television series, with Deadline reporting today that Merle Dandridge has joined the cast in the role she voiced in the video games.
Dandridge will now play the live-action version of “Marlene, the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime.”
Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole) will be directing the pilot episode of HBO’s “The Last of Us” series, with Jasmila Žbanić (Quo vadis, Aida) and Ali Abbasi (Border) also directing episodes.
Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”) is Joel and Bella Ramsey (“Game of Thrones”) is Ellie, with Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate) playing Tommy, the brother of Pascal’s Joel.
“The series takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.”
Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) is developing the series for HBO, and he’ll be working with Neil Druckmann to write and executive produce the small screen adaptation.