Gabriel Luna has joined the cast of HBO's TV adaptation of the critically acclaimed video game, The Last of Us.
According to Variety, Luna will star as Tommy, the younger brother of Pedro Pascal's (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian) Joel. A former soldier, he has not lost his idealistic spirit, despite living in an apocalyptic landscape.
Luna joins a cast that also includes Bella Ramsey, best known for her performance as Lady Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones. Kantemir Balagov will direct the series' pilot, with Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin and game creator Neil Druckmann penning the scripts.
Released in 2013, The Last of Us is a survival horror game set in an apocalyptic near future. After a disease turns most of humanity into zombie-like creatures, Joel, one of the few survivors, must protect a young girl named Ellie, who is immune to the mutation and may be able to provide a cure. It is one of the best-selling video games of all time, selling over 1.3 million copies in its first week. A sequel, The Last of Us Part II, released in the summer of 2020 to record sales, along with much fanfare and controversy.
Luna is best known for his role in ABC's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., where he played Robbie Reyes / Ghost Rider. He most recently starred in Terminator: Dark Fate and has also appeared in True Detective, Rosewood and Wicked City.
The synopsis for the series can be found below:
Based on the critically acclaimed video game The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation® platforms, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Written by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, HBO's The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and stars Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Pedro Pascal as Joel and Gabriel Luna as Tommy. Director Kantemir Balagov will be helming the series' pilot episode.
Source: Variety