Season 3 of The Last of Us TV show will add John Goodman, Laura Bailey and Ian Alexander to the cast
But Bailey and Alexander won’t play the roles they did in the second game
Three more actors joining the cast of the The Last of Us TV show’s third season have been confirmed, and two of them will be familiar to fans of the games.
Deadline reports that John Goodman (The Big Lebowski, Argo, Roseanne), Laura Bailey and Ian Alexander will appear in season three, which is set to air in 2027.
Bailey previously played Abby in The Last of Us: Part 2 video game, while Alexander played Lev. Since these roles were already played by Kaitlyn Dever and Kyriana Kratter in season two of the TV show, however, Bailey and Alexander will instead portray different roles.
Bailey will now play Elizabeth, one of the leaders of the Searphites. Elizabeth was referenced in The Last of Us Part II game but was never seen.
Alexander, meanwhile, will team up with Goodman to play Paco and Joey, a pair described as “Heroes of the Highway”. These appear to be new characters who didn’t feature in the games.
This is not the first time members of the game’s cast have played different characters in the TV series. Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the games, played her mother in the TV show instead. Meanwhile, Troy Baker, who played Joel in the games, instead makes an appearance as antagonist David’s right-hand man James.
The three will join previously announced season three newcomers Li Jun Li, Peter Sarsgaard, Jason Ritter, Patrick Wilson, Michelle Mao, Clea DuVall and Jorge Lendeborg.
Laura Bailey said back in 2022 that she still had love for The Last of Us and would “definitely” return to play the role of Abby if asked.
Abby was one of the more heavily debated characters in The Last of Us Part II, partly due to the fact players had to control her at some points in the game, and partly because of her character design. The character has an extremely muscular body, which led to criticism from some players and sparked debate on the lack of body diversity in games.
Bailey also received abusive and threatening messages as a result of her portrayal of Abby, some of which she shared online.
