HBO’s The Last of Us casts Yellowjackets’ Melanie Lynksey is new role

Craig Mazin and HBO’s The Last of Us looks like it’ll largely stick to the story laid out in developer Naughty Dog’s The Last of UsJoel and Ellie are taken through the fungus-ravaged United States. But judging from the trailer, there’s at least one major exception: Melanie Lynskey.

Monday’s Last of Us Trailer also served to announce casting for YellowjacketsThe HBO series stars Melanie Lynskey. She’s playing a character called Kathleen, a “ruthless leader of a revolutionary movement in Kansas City,” an HBO representative confirmed to Polygon. Joel and Ellie travel across a huge portion of the country in the games — from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, before heading onward to Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Although their journey through the middle of America is mostly skipped in the game, it seems like HBO will fill in the gaps. It sounds like Ellie will visit Kansas City in Missouri, as well as Jackson, Wyoming and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

If you’ve been following Last of Us’ casting announcements, this might not be news to you. HBO confirmed to IGN in early August that Henry (played by Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard) — two beloved characters from the game — will encounter Ellie and Joel in Kansas City instead of Pittsburgh, the original location. At that time, HBO said Sam and Henry were “hiding from a revolutionary movement seeking vengeance,” and it looks like Lynskey’s Kathleen is the ringleader behind that.

Usually when I’m thinking The Last of Us the word revolutionary is tied to the Fireflies, the group that fought oppressive government control and the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FDRA) in the country’s quarantine zones. But Kathleen’s group sounds more like the Hunters, which were basically all the nameless bad guys in the game — and the ones that chase Ellie, Joel, Sam, and Henry around in that notorious armored truck.

My theory is that the HBO show will build out this group a bit more, making them feel more organized under Kathleen’s lead. Of course, that’s all speculation; I’m not sure we’ll get answers there until a few episodes into Last of Us’ 10-episode season, which premieres in 2023, HBO said.