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The Last of Us was almost an animated series before HBO

The Last of Us TV series as we know it has a live action cast led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, but it could have been a lot different.

perry in the last of us series

Before The Last Of Us TV series cast Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as their live-action Joel and Ellie, there were several ideas on what the videogame adaptation might look like, including a potential animated series or video game movie. Speaking to The Direct, Jeffery Pierce, who voiced Tommy in the original game, shed light over whether he was approached to reprise his role as Joel’s brother.

“No, not in the course of the HBO show,” he said. “There have been a couple of different iterations over time. There was a movie at one point. There was a motion-capture cinematic animated series at one point. And both of those are things that I thought, ‘I got a pretty good shot at being involved to some degree.’”

He added, “But that was a long time ago and a lot of white beard in the past. So… I think initially they had talked to Mahershala Ali about playing Joel, which is an obvious cue that I’m not gonna play Tommy… And when they cast Pedro [Pascal], I knew like, yeah, that was certainly not going to happen regardless, I’m older than Pedro Pascal. So I was not under harboring any illusions about that, for sure.”

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While the live-action role of Tommy eventually went to Gabriel Luna, Pierce still made an appearance in the horror series as Perry, who helped out Joel and Ellie in Kansas City. To explore other changes made from game to screen, check out our guides detailing cordyceps, the infected, clickers, bloaters, FEDRA, and the Fireflies.