HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation has found its Marlene in Merle Dandridge. A prominent character in the first installment of the game back in 2013, Marlene is the leader of the Fireflies, a revolutionary militia group developed after a fungus outbreak that swept the planet. Initially thought of to be one of the good guys, who would help both Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) develop a cure for the disease, she turns into the final antagonist of the first game.
After several casting choices that seem to deviate from the profiles that the characters in the game series brought us, bringing Dandrige on board feels interesting. It would seem that even with all the changes to the source material such an adaptation usually entails, Marlene is someone that the production team, which was also heavily involved in developing the game series, feels should be brought to life on the small screen with little to no differences to its video game counterpart.
HBO’s The Last of Us doesn’t yet have a release date but with several key casting choices already made, we should maybe get updates on the production’s timeline in the coming weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how much the adaptation changes from the original games, as they might take some unique directions with the franchise. There is also the question of how much of the story will take place within the series’ run time, as they may split up the original game through multiple seasons. They could even explore the time between the 2014 game and its sequel to flesh out the characters. Hopefully, we’ll find out more in the coming weeks.
Source: THR
