Meet Ellie Williams – Everyone’s Favorite Badass in ‘The Last of Us’

If Ellie Williams wasn’t in The Last of Us, there wouldn’t be a game. While Joel Miller is probably the character fans love the most (because he’s the one we’re on this journey with, for the most part), Ellie is of utmost importance in the game. She’s the reason why Joel has to leave his life with Tess, and their relationship is paramount to why the game was such a success.

So, while we’re gearing up to see Bella Ramsey’s take on Ellie in the HBO series (premiering on January 15), let’s talk about what makes this character so badass in the game! Because look, when you think about female characters in games, they can often be limited in their abilities. But then The Last of Us gave us Ellie (voiced by Ashley Johnson, who helped bring the character to life via motion-capture), and she’s so cool that it’s no surprise that fans love her as much as they do.

Ellie is 14 years old when she is hanging out with Riley and gets bitten by a clicker—one of the people infected by the cordyceps parasite. The thing is, Ellie doesn’t change. Much like any zombie story, when bitten by the infected, you end up turning into one. But Ellie’s bite heals and it’s believed that she’s the answer to this infection. Joel’s journey involves getting Ellie from the quarantine zone to the Fireflies, a group that wants to figure out how to use her immunity to their advantage.

Throughout the game, you learn all about Ellie’s life and her connections to the Fireflies, and Joel’s attempts to find his brother, Tommy. The show could be different from Ellie’s journey in the game, but it might be safe to say that the TV version of Ellie is probably infected and the Fireflies still think she’s the answer to the apocalypse.

What happens to Ellie in The Last of Us?

What we know about Ellie’s arc from the game is that she grows up and considers Joel to be a father figure to her. In The Last of Us: Part II, Ellie is 19 years old (five years after the first game) and she has settled into a life in Jackson. There, her and Joel are still working on their dynamic, but it is still very much the relationship we saw in the first game.

They have the same struggles as with any father/daughter relationship, but the two have a dynamic that really hooked fans of the game, so I hope the show explores their bond and how it grows over the course of their journey. From what we’ve seen of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in interviews, I think it is safe to say that those two are going to do these characters justice.

We also know that Ellie survives both Part I and Part II. So unless the show drastically changes how she functions in the world of The Last of Us, we can expect to see more of her story throughout the series.

(featured image: HBO)