Emmy winner John Goodman (The Conners), Ian Alexander and Laura Bailey (The Legend of Vox Machina) have joined the Season 3 cast of HBO‘s The Last Of Us.
The castings are significant, as Alexander and Bailey previously voiced characters from The Last of Us: Part II video game, Alexander as Lev and Bailey as Abby. Kyriana Kratter plays Lev in the live-action series and Abby is played by Kaitlyn Dever.
In HBO’s The Last Of Us, Goodman plays Joey and Alexander plays Paco, a friendly duo who dub themselves “Heroes of the Highway.” Bailey plays Elizabeth, one of the leaders of the religious sect known as the Seraphites.
HBO previously pulled actors from the video games for the live-action series, casting Merle Dandridge and Jeffrey Wright, who both reprised the live-action versions of the characters they voiced in the games – Dandridge as Marlene, head of the Fireflies resistance movement, and Wright as Isaac Dixon, leader of the WLF militia in Seattle. Additionally, Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie’s mom in the Season 1 finale, voiced Ellie in the video games.
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Co-created by Craig Mazin and the game’s Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us, based on the award-winning Naughty Dog video game, takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. The story began with Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, getting 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. No details regarding Season 3’s plot have been revealed but it is expected to focus on Abby Anderson (Dever)’s arc, in which Seraphites play a major part.
Pascal’s character Joel was killed in the Season 2 finale, so he could not physically appear in Season 3, but it’s possible he could appear in flashbacks. At this point, his return is uncertain.
Goodman, Alexander and Bailey, join several other previously announced new cast members for Season 3, including Li Jun Li as Miriam, a Seraphite, Peter Sarsgaard as Amon, one of the leaders of the Seraphites, a new character that is not in the video games. Also joining the cast this season are Jason Ritter as Hanley, a WLF soldier, Patrick Wilson as Jerry, Abby’s (Dever) father, as well as Michelle Mao, Clea DuVall and Jorge Lendeborg as Manny, taking over the role for Danny Ramirez, who could not return for scheduling reasons.
Season 3 may indeed be the last for the HBO series. In an interview with Deadline after HBO’s 21 Emmy wins earlier this month, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, would not confirm the upcoming season is the last, but said he believes “Mazin has planned it as the final season.”
Mazin, who served as executive producer/co-showrunner alongside Neil Druckmann in Seasons 1 and 2, is the series’ sole showrunner for Season 3. It’s scheduled to premiere in 2027.
Katie Campione contributed to this report.