With a heartbreaking time skip looming for the second season of The Last of Us on HBO, Bella Ramsey is preparing their body to take on a much bigger, more physical, and, presumably, far more violent role ahead of its premiere sometime next year.
HBO's award-winning live action adaptation of The Last of Us will officially return for a second season in early 2025 as Ramsey reprises her role as Ellie alongside Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller. But, as any video game fan will tell you, Joel takes a backseat in the second game, which will serve as the basis for the plot of the second season (and beyond). Although the showrunners, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, have taken creative liberties with the material, the general structure has followed a similar path. Thus, with Season 2 set to feature an older and more mature Ellie, the 20-year-old Game of Thrones star is making sure that their body is up for the task.
With only weeks to go before the alleged February 2024 production window for The Last of Us Season 2 kicks off, the footage of Ramsey training ahead of filming has begun circulating online.
One of the main differences between the first and second The Last of Us games is the latter's emphasis on physical violence and gore. This sometimes uneasy highlighting of what others have described as "needless brutality" was part of the reason for the game's controversial nature, especially when it first came out. Adapting it to the small screen will, thus, be tricky, and should generate similar conversation. At the very least, Ramsey's training should prepare their body for their more physically taxing role.
