The Last of Us: HBO Taps Merle Dandridge to Reprise Role as Marlene

May 27, 2021

In an interesting move, HBO is keeping the actor for Marlene from The Last of Us games for the television adaptation.

The Hollywood Reporter says Merle Dandridge will once again play Marlene. Her character, who serves as the leader of the Fireflies resistance movement, plays a pivotal role in the plot. Dandridge voiced the character in the 2013 game and its sequel. While best known for her voice acting, Dandridge has done a number of traditional acting roles such as playing Kim Hammond in The Flight Attendant and Diana Macomber in Murphy Brown.

Dandridge joins a cast that already includes Terminator: Dark Fate actor Gabriel Luna and Game of Thrones vets Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramse. Production on the HBO live-action series is expected to begin this coming July in Canada.

Developed by Naughty Dog, The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game that has already sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. The game follows hardened survivors Joel and Ellie, a young and capable girl, on their journey through a radically transformed world. Set twenty years after an infectious pandemic spread by the cordyceps virus ravaged the course of humanity, these two people, who were brought together by chance, must make life-altering decisions in order to survive.

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The HBO series will be led by Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Luna will play Joel’s brother, Tommy. Co-written by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and original game writer Neil Druckmann, the series adaptation will tackle the events of the first game.

Kantermir Balagov is attached to direct the pilot episode. Mazin will executive produce along with Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog president Evan Wells and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan. The project is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television in association with PlayStation Productions.