Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey cast in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

Feb. 11 (UPI) — Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey have been cast in HBO’s adaptation of PlayStation video game series, The Last of Us.

Pascal will be portraying Joel with Ramsey as Ellie, the two lead stars of the series. Writer and creative director of the video game series Neil Druckmann confirmed the casting on Twitter.

Pascal and Ramsey both appeared in HBO’s Game of Thrones as Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Mormont, respectively. Pascal also stars in The Mandalorian and was in Wonder Woman 1984.

HBO gave a series order to The Last of Us in November. Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) is writing the series along with Druckmann, with the duo also executive producing.

Kantemir Balagov will direct the pilot episode. The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television. PlayStation Productions, Word Games and Naughty Dog — the development team behind the games — are attached to produce.

Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan are also executive producing.

The Last of Us follows rugged survivor Joel and the younger Ellie as they travel across a post-apocalyptic United States that has been ravaged by a virus. The virus turns people into vicious creatures known as The Infected, while Ellie might be the key to a cure.

The first game in the series was released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013. A sequel, The Last of Us Part II, was released for the PlayStation 4 in June. The Last of Us is one of PlayStation’s most critically-acclaimed and best-selling series.

The Last of Us Part II won big at the Game Awards in December, taking home a leading seven awards including Game of the Year.