Game for it

Why the creator of the acclaimed Chernobyl has a new show based on a video game and why the Mandalorian is starring in it.

- RUSSELL BAILLIE

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey starred in different seasons of Game of Thrones and never met. But their characters had something in common. Both were crushed to death by giant creatures.

“My head was well squished by the time you showed up,” Pascal says to Ramsey as the jovial pair share a Zoom press call about their new show.

Still, even if both made grim exits, Thrones boosted their careers. For Chilean-American Pascal, that meant lead roles in Narcos and the title role in the hit Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian. For English teenager Ramsey, there have been more period productions like Becoming Elizabeth and the lead in the charming medieval comedy feature Catherine Called Birdy, playing a character even more precocious than Thrones’ Lyanna Mormont.

Now the pair are starring together in another show that puts them at risk of again dying in not a nice way. And as with their Star Wars and Thrones roles, their new characters come with in-built pop-culture kudos and plastic figurines.

They are Joel and Ellie. Those names ringing any bells will depend on your familiarity with The Last of Us, the survival thriller video game considered one of the best ever. Neither Pascal nor Ramsey knew much about it before auditioning. Though Pascal says he had some teenage nephews who freaked out when he told them he might be in a The Last of Us series. “I understood immediately. Okay. This is a big deal.”

It has been so for a decade. Some 30 million copies of the game’s various versions have been sold since the first was released for the PlayStation 3 in 2013, with a PS5 iteration released a few months ago.