The Last of Us Showrunner Isn't Concerned About Bella Ramsey's Ellie Looking Too Young in Season 2

Bored of people whining about Bella Ramsey. She’s a good actress who nailed the role despite not looking exactly like Ellie

@Mattock1987 I disagree that she is a good actress who nailed the role.

But the world would be very boring if we all agreed on everything huh?

Shes nothing like the game ellie anyway, so who cares about how she looks.

People complaining that a 21 year old looks too young to play a 19 year old gives a headache to those of us who grew up with 20 somethings playing high schoolers in pretty much everything. I think some of the Sweathogs might have been in their late 20s. Though they could have just been left back a lot.😂

Hell, she looked too old in the first season. Not a concern for me though.

@LifeGirl I mean, disagreeing isn’t fun. But I get that you’re saying.

@rjejr reminds me of Beverly Hills: 90210 when all the “teenagers” were damn near grandparents lol.

@rjejr sometime 30 year olds 🤣 in movies and tv can we not just suspend belief a little??

Nothing about her age, but I still can't understand how people think Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal fit the roles on any kind of way.
The general feel and look of the series nailed the games almost perfectly, but the two main actors just took me out of the series in every scene.
Clearly in the minority there, I know, but I really can't see them as Joel and Ellie...

Love the games, and the show, so I've decided to start some prepping.
Finished Part 1 on PC a few days ago, now I'm (re)watching Season 1.
Already preordered TLoU Part 2 for PC (launching Thursday 3rd), gonna have 10 days to finish it. Wanna have it fresh in my mind going into Season 2.

About Bella - before Season 1 I was also reticent to accept her as Ellie by looks differences alone compared to the game character. But after watching the show that changed, she manages to capture her spirit so well, that she fits the role exemplary.
Her age is not an issue as far as I'm concerned, lots of people don't look their age in either direction, so I'm ok with it.

In what world would a showrunner come out and say "Yeah, our casting choices suck." 😅

She is looking wee bit young…
😜

I clearly watched something else if we're applauding her acting. She went from irritating to ever so slightly less irritating ( plus she's more frightening than any clicker could hope to be)

I mean she's older then what Ellie is in Part 2 in real life so does it matter?

Fictional show based on a fictional video game. If you plan on watching it, just enjoy it for what it is.

@lacerz She was so good in Game of Thrones, stole every scene she was in.

I think it's time for gamers to understand this show isn't being made solely for us to compare it to the source material. It's an adaptation for a much larger audience. If you don't like it because it doesn't look the way you feel it should on a surface level, that's your issue to navigate. The games haven't gone anywhere... Play them again.

It's fine to disagree, but so many of the points online ring hollow and prove exactly why Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are at the helm. They have a vision and they're executing it the way they see fit. Season 1 was a resounding success as a result, and anticipation for Season 2 is already immense.

They have the authority to create how they see fit, and it's fine if you don't connect with it. However, if you feel such strong ownership of how the vision should have been realized, maybe you should put that energy into your own creative endeavors instead. Show us what you've got.

@AhmadSumadi I watched the movie "Grease" recently. Some of them looked 30. 🤪

A 21 yo playing a 19 yo or a 19 yo playing a 21 yo is really not going to register to me.

I think people also forget that makeup, hair products and clothing styles are not a high priority for people living in this world. If they made her up to look older it would come off worse. Plenty of women w/o makeup look younger. It's why young girls wear makeup, to look older.😂

Funny how growing up, I assumed the average American of 18 years old looked about 40 years old, because that's how old the actors were in any high school movie!

Always wondered what these weird schools were, where middle aged men drove there in cars, go to class and act their shoe size as if they have some developmental disorder that meant their brains stopped developing at 16.

I'm assuming it's not like that in real life!!! (Edit: I just saw the example above of Grease! Exactly!!!!)

Perhaps being English, Bella is a bit of a shock to Americans as they've never seen a character that isn't being played by an actor who is 20 years too old for the role?

As for her acting, it's hard to differentiate her skills from the material she was given. The series was rushed and focused on the wrong areas, with the Ellie/Joel relationship seeming to be low down the pecking order.

There were a few moments of decent banter where I felt she nailed it, but those moments were far and few between.

Wasn't even concerned with finding someone who looked the part, why would he care if she looks too old?

@Nepp67 How dare you have your own opinions. Imagine if this was a male character? Absolutely nobody would care what you said about their looks.

She was so damn excellent in season one. I can't wait to see how she will carry season 2 on her shoulders !

She kinda looks like a 15 year old foetus. Never changes. But also who cares, people like her acting, so..

@Arkz agreeing with you would get me censored by the PC police, but you're right (dammit, my honesty leaked out!).

Even if you ignore what she looks like, she has zero expression on her face. Some actors are just bad and can't live up to their roles.

They could have used make-up to make them look older, that's like stage make-up 101, so I don't really agree. But Bella is a strong enough actor that I doubt it will matter much when we're actually watching the show.

Worst casting in the history of tv shows. I liked Bella in GoT and have nothing against her as an actor but she is not Ellie. Pedro is not Joel. Thandiwe Newtons daughter is not Sarah. The show feels so inauthentic and more like a platform to promote those with the right connections. TLoU is one of the greatest games ever made and the tv show could and should have been so much more than this. But it’s been reduced to favouritism and nepotism. It’s a real shame.

Worst casting ever

I’m a big naysayer when it comes to this franchise, but he isn’t wrong in approaching it this way. While I’m sure it’ll ruffle some feathers, being in my mid 30s now and having to entertain the day to day lives of similar aged people with the overall mentality of preteens is not a great thing. That being said, still don’t care to watch this one but can appreciate a refreshing take any day of the week.

@tselliot You're not wrong, but if I say more I'll get my comment censored again lol

@rjejr haha.... sweathogs brings back so many "Welcome Back Kotter" memories... and yes, when you look back at old series it's weird to see the mental hoops jumped through by viewers to see them as high school students. I think there's definitely a case where mental plasticity should allow us to understand a 20something actor can possibly be a 14 year old. I think however there's a slightly higher hurdle to think that the same actor (without makeup) is 19 when you're meant to understand the travel of time between time-periods.

It's not that it matters specifically, but it makes our immersion into the show a little more difficult. Not a show-stopper, but I don't understand why they wouldn't seek to physically mature her up - as well as maturing her emotionally.

In the end, I think that viewers have also matured a lot since Kotter days, and I think we might expect a little better. It's an interesting concept to consider a 50 year old (yes - it's 50 years old now) tv series as a standard for what we should expect today. It actually makes me wince to think of what media would be like if things hadn't changed... then again, I also fondly remember a lot of those old series.

@anubisvel so in an article about the fact that Bella's not going to be aged up - and where people are invited to respond with what they think.... it's up to you to tell people their opinions don't ring true - and they shouldn't express an opinion unless they are willing and able to make an entire produced television series?

Interesting take on a comments section.

"Are you excited to watch? Tell us in the comments section below."

Not particularly. My friends and I found S1 a bit underwhelming and light on the infected. I am a big fan of the games but my friends aren't gamers. I suspect I will be watching S2 alone.

Regarding the subject of the article. Not particularly concerned about actors appearances, more concerned about their abilities.

Personally, it's not even about the acting or the casting. The acting is great. I just don't think it's written well and doesn't do some of the IP's best moments any justice. Episode 1 - 3 was okay. After that, it went downhill for me. Probably won't watch season 2.

People can complain and consider their opinion superior to others all they want. At the end of the day, the show was a huge hit with Pedro and Bella, so whatever they're doing, it's working just fine.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I’m not sure what you mean by “aged up.” Ellie is 19 during the majority of TLOU2, and Bella was 19/20 during production. The discourse around how Bella looks hasn’t just been focused on age, and I’m sure you’re well aware of that.

My point is, I’d rather see well-formed opinions or productive initiative over superficial vitriol. At a certain point, people complaining about Bella’s casting need to realize what they have no control or influence over. There’s a point where passing criticism becomes little more than whining and attention-seeking.

I stand by what I said. I’m proposing one of many more productive options that doesn’t require anyone being critical to change their opinion.

@anubisvel "aged up" means... she appears to have aged. When a 14 year old character (in TLOUp1) looks exactly the same as a 19 year old (TLOUp2), that's not normal. Ellie in Part2 has become aged through the struggle to live and work in a world that wants to kill them... she wears her life experience on her face. It's part of the visual story-telling. Whether or not Bella looked like a 14 yo to start with is another question, but I think what you're somehow finding "vitriolic" is simply just people perhaps thinking there's some very odd design choices that don't seem to be made for any in-story reason. Of course - in the series they may engineer a different story that makes it consistent - but people are commenting on the story they know. That's not a bad thing. People can disagree with those choices, without having to start up multi-million dollar studios to earn your approval to have an opinion that you don't agree with.

@Oz_Who_Dat_Dare I hear what you’re saying, and I agree that visual storytelling matters—aging, trauma, and character design all play a role. But my issue isn’t just with people pointing out differences between the game and the show. It’s with how those criticisms are often being delivered. A lot of the online discourse isn’t thoughtful critique—it’s people calling Bella “ugly” or claiming Bella doesn’t “look like Ellie” in ways rooted more in bias and narrow beauty standards than in actual narrative analysis.

People are absolutely allowed to disagree with creative choices. But when that disagreement leans on personal digs or gets framed as concern for “authenticity” while dismissing an actor’s performance outright, it stops being constructive. This show is a reinterpretation, not a direct copy. It’s telling the same emotional story through a different lens, and not everything will—or should—mirror the game one-to-one. That doesn’t make it a failure. It makes it an adaptation.

And to clarify: no one needs a studio or a production budget to have an opinion. What I said was that if someone feels so strongly about how something should have been done, it might be more fulfilling to channel that passion into something creative of their own. That’s not a dismissal—it’s an invitation to build, not just tear down.