Last month, it was announced that Chernobyl series creator and writer Craig Mazin and game director Neil Druckmann would be working together to bring to life a live-action television series adaptation of The Last of Us for HBO. Following this announcement, many tried their hand at proposing who should play Ellie and Joel in the television series.
Kaitlyn Dever is undoubtedly one of the names that was incessantly brought up in suggestion of who should play Ellie. The actress is best known for starring in acclaimed comedy Booksmart as well as the recent Netflix series Unbelievable.
Notably, she also has ties to Naughty Dog (the developer of The Last of Us) and, by extension, Neil Druckmann as she briefly played the character of Cassie Drake during the epilogue section of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End.
Collider recently got the chance to speak with Dever and didn't pass up the opportunity to bring up The Last of Us. The site asked her what she thought of the fan-casting and possibly playing Ellie in live-action as well as what she thought of The Last of Us in general. It turns out, she's a huge fan. Not only that, but she "would absolutely love to [play Ellie]."
Well, this is the first time I’m being asked about this. Listen, I am a huge fan of the game, and I don’t know if a lot of people know that, but I’m saying it now; I am a huge fan of that video game. I think it is a beautiful story. It’s just a wonderful narrative, and I fell in love with that game when it came out. And I played it with my dad and we just had the best time. I’m not very good at it. My aim is really bad, but I’m working on getting better at playing. But I love The Last of Us. I think it’s an incredible story.
I obviously have been seeing the Internet, and I’ve obviously been seeing a lot of that. Neil Druckmann, I worked with him on Uncharted 4. I think he’s one of the smartest guys I’ve ever met, and one of the sweetest. And I’m not shutting it down, you know? I’m not shutting it down. I would absolutely love to do that. But I don’t know where it’s at yet. But I love The Last Of Us.
So, here you go Craig Mazin. Here's your girl. She's the one. For Joel on the other hand, Dever said that she agrees with another popular fan-casting — that Hugh Jackman should play him.
"There’s so many people that would be so great for that role! I’ve seen the fan casts of Hugh Jackman as Joel. I like that one. And I also know Hugh and I’ve worked with Hugh and I think he’s the nicest guy in the world so I think he should be in everything."
What do you think of Kaitlyn Dever as a possible candidate to play Ellie in HBO's The Last of Us series? How about Hugh Jackman as Joel? Do you have a better suggestion? Doubt it.
In other The Last of Us news; highly-anticipated sequel The Last of Us Part II was recently subject to an indefinite release date delay on account of the Coronavirus pandemic that's currently plaguing most of the world. Here's what the game's director Neil Druckmann had to say about it.