The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic drama television show on HBO that is based on a video game series of the same name. In a world overrun by humans infected by a fungus that turns them into zombies, Ellie, played in the series by Bella Ramsey, is one of the central characters who remain unaffected by the disease.
The video games developed by Naughty Dog have established Ellie as a queer character, without expressly stating her sexuality. However, the character has only been involved in romantic relationships with other women. As such, it is justifiable to consider her sexuality as gay (or lesbian).
Ellie’s sexuality was first explored in The Last of Us game in a downloadable expansion pack called The Last of Us: Left Behind. In one cutscene, she is seen kissing a girl called Riley. The event was recreated in the television adaptation and is a part of season 1 episode 7.
While Ellie and Riley were not confirmed to be in a relationship while sharing the kiss, creator Neil Druckmann stated in an interview with GayGamer in 2016 that it was in no way platonic.
“When I was writing it I was writing it with the idea that Ellie is gay. I think it’s weird because if Riley was a boy this debate wouldn’t be happening. No one would say, ‘Oh maybe it’s just a friendly kiss,’” he noted.
Exploring Ellie’s sexuality in HBO’s The Last of Us
The Last of Us season 1 episode 7 has a flashback sequence that tells the story of Ellie and her childhood best friend Riley (played by Storm Reid) during their time at FEDRA’s boarding school.
Present-day Ellie recalls being woken up by Riley one day, and going out to explore an abandoned mall. They enjoy themselves throughout the day and end up sharing a kiss.
The relationship between the two is not explored any further, and Ellie appears with a different girl, Dina (played by Isabela Merced), in The Last of Us season 2 episode 1. Both of them live in the survivors’ camp in Wyoming and go dancing together at a community event.
Swayed by the moment, they kiss in public, triggering some homophobic comments and prompting Joel (Ellie’s father figure, played by Pedro Pascal) to step in.
Bella Ramsay’s opinion on playing a queer character in The Last of Us
Bella Ramsey, the 21-year-old star of The Last of Us show, reportedly told L’Officiel in an interview published on April 27, 2023, that they are very pleased with the queer representation in the franchise.
“It was really nice to have two really queer episodes,” they said at the time. “Like, gay people exist, so why shouldn’t they exist in the apocalypse? I really liked that it didn’t feel tacked on. It was so integral to this story, and so organically done, that it didn’t feel like, Oh, we’re just putting in these queer people for representation. This is the story, and it’s just a story of two people loving each other, and it was really beautiful.”
They also revealed that they were attracted to their character at the onset because she was described in an email from showrunner Craig Mazin as a person who is gay and does not care about it at all.
Follow for updates on The Last of Us.
alt=”Sudipta Sinha” height=”72″ width=”72″>
Edited by Prem Deshpande
