This article contains spoiler for The Last of Us's season one finale.
Last night, the explosive and emotional finale of HBO’s video game adaptation The Last of Us aired to the praise of fans and critics alike. What many fans caught was Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the games, appearing as Ellie’s mom. But, what many viewers may have missed was a surprise cameo by one of the game’s stars reprising their role! Laura Bailey makes an appearance, but not as who you might think.
In the season finale, Joel (Pedro Pascal) finally completes his mission of delivering Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the Fireflies, who believe Ellie holds the key to making a cure. But, when Joel learns that the process of making a cure will kill Ellie, he decides to save her. He goes on a rampage throughout the hospital, killing anyone who stands in his way. He eventually makes it to the operating room just in time to put a stop to it all, killing the doctor and forcing the nurses to let him take Ellie.
As it turns out, one of those nurses is none other than Bailey, who also voiced the nurse in the original game! Bailey is a veteran of the voice acting industry and lent her voice to several small roles in the original game. But even devoted fans of the games may not even know she voiced one of the nurses. Also, when fans hear she reprises her role in the show, they do not expect it to be the nurse, as she also plays a major, and spoiler-heavy, role in the game’s sequel. So, her appearance in the show as one of the nurses is a huge, and welcome, surprise!
In a virtual press conference, Craig Mazin, the co-creator and co-showrunner of the adaptation, revealed the process of getting Bailey on the show was not a tough one. As he explained: "She was like, 'Come on! Lemme do it. Lemme be in the show.’ We were like, 'We love you. Of course!'" But to any fans sad that Bailey had just a quick appearance, future appearances for Season 2 have not been ruled out. Neil Druckmann, the game’s co-creator, and the adaptation’s co-creator and co-showrunner, said: “Maybe we’ll do something else with her in the next season,” and Mazin added: “She’s got a mask on, so we can make her anything we want in the next season.”
Bailey is not the only performer from the games to appear in the series. As mentioned above, Johnson appeared in the finale, but also Troy Baker, the original Joel, and Jeffrey Pierce, the original Tommy, both make appearances in previous episodes. On top of that, Bailey is also not the only one to reprise a role they played in the game. Merle Dandridge plays Marlene in both the game and the show!
The Last of Us is streaming on HBO Max. Check out the trailer for the series below: