After being spotted on set and rumors circulating on who she would play, Entertainment Weekly confirmed who Rutina Wesley will play in The Last of Us series, and it is a role from the games. The True Blood star will be taking on Maria Miller, who is married to Tommy, Joel’s brother. The character appeared in both of the PlayStation action-adventure video games.
In the games, she was played by Ashley Scott. For people unfamiliar with the games, they will see Rutina Wesley take on the role in The Last of Us series as not only a wife but a leader. She is one of the people leading a community of survivors in Jackson, Wyoming in the fungal zombie apocalypse. Besides the change in the character’s race, we don’t know what Craig Mazin has to deliver in terms of the character’s story within Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) cross-country adventure.
Rutina Wesley will play Maria in The Last of Us series, a role from the games
The HBO adaption of the Naughty Dog video game that was originally released in 2013 takes place over 20 years into a zombie apocalypse. Joel (in the game played by Troy Baker) gets put into a situation to take on a teenage girl, Ellie (in the game played by Ashley Johnson), across the country to possibly find a cure for the virus as the teenager may hold the key to ending the zombie infestation. After its large success, a sequel was released in 2020, putting Ellie as the primary protagonist instead of Joel. If the show is a success, then it may follow that story from the sequel.
Seeing Rutina Wesley take on Maria shows how The Last of Us series is aiming to strike a balance of changes and familiar pieces to honor the source material while having a new stamp on it. In the trailers, we see familiar characters, environments, and story beats from the game, with entirely fresh ideas at the same time in the footage.
Pascal, Ramsey, and Wesley will be joined by Nick Offerman, Baker, Johnson, and Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate), Merle Dandridge (The Last of Us game), Jeffrey Pierce (The Last of Us game), and Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets). The series hits HBO on January 15.
