The Last of Us Fans Turn on HBO TV Show Over “Terrible” Casting

Internet sentiment around The Last of Us HBO TV show seems to be souring ahead of the release of Season 2 in April. There are a few reasons that could be contributing to this. For one, the material it is adapting is contentious. The Last of Us Part 2 was notoriously controversial when it released. Another reason could perhaps be the fact that Naughty Dog has been sucked into the ongoing culture war in gaming since the reveal of Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet last month and the subsequent backlash. The primary reason seems to be the casting of the show though.

Bella Ramsey as protagonist Ellie has been a slightly contentious pick since it was revealed she was portraying the character, largely because she looks nothing like her video game counterpart. And ahead of Season 2, grumbling over this topic has grown and been highlighted as Season 2 castings have been revealed.

One Last of Us Season 2 casting that has highlighted the contentious Ellie casting has been Kaitlyn Dever, who is set to play Abby in Season 2. Abby herself is a very controversial character for the events of the second game, and PlayStation fans were quick to point out she is yet another odd pick based on the design of Abby in the second game. More than this, Dever’s involvement has frustrated fans even more about the Ellie casting, because Dever looks far more like Ellie than Ramsey.

The souring sentiment can best be seen in the replies of a new X post from popular page The Last of Us News, which has over 161,000 followers. The page recently shared a post featuring different characters in the show accompanied by “HBO is cooking.” Most of the replies — from fellow Last of Us fans — don’t seem to agree though.

“Why make the other characters look similar to their video game counterparts but make Ellie look so different,” reads one popular comment. “Ellie does not match at all, bad casting. The actress is a good actress, but not the right one for Ellie,” adds another fan.

A third comment adds: “Let me ask you this: How on earth did they manage to match every other character with the game but not Ellie.”

Other comments are even more harsh. “Cooking up dog****. Get them out of the kitchen,” adds one of the most-liked comments.

Of course, these takes don’t represents the overall Internet opinion on the HBO show, but they do represent what appears to be a bubbling displeasure. Whether this will be felt in the ratings for the second season, only time will tell.