Li Jun Li, known best most recently for her breakout starring role in Ryan Coogler’s Oscar-winning Sinners, has joined the Season 3 cast of HBO‘s The Last Of Us, Deadline has confirmed.
Li will play Mirium, a Seraphite who is Lev and Yara’s mother. As previously announced, Bridgerton‘s Michelle Mao and Kyriana Kratter will play Yara and Lev, respectively.
Based on Naughty Dog’s award-winning video game, The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Season 2 picked up five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind. Season 3, which will be an adaption of the second half of the Part II game, shifts the focus to the story of Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever.
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The Last of Us was co-created by Craig Mazin and the game’s Neil Druckmann, with Mazin, who served as executive producer/co-showrunner alongside Druckmann in Seasons 1 and 2, as the sole showrunner for Season 3.
Li received critical acclaim for her role as Grace Chow in Sinners. She’ll next be seen opposite Nicolas Cage in live-action series Spider-Noir, set for a May 27 release on Prime Video.
Variety was first to report Li’s casting.