For ‘The Last of Us' cast, music was a throughline on and off screen

Los Angeles Times

23-05-2025

Throughout HBO's post-apocalyptic series 'The Last of Us,' music plays a role in setting the mood for moments big and small, heartfelt and heart-wrenching. It's not unlike the video game, which was hailed for its original soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla (who is also a composer on the show), and for the pop music covers that helped to elevate the narrative.
In the most recent episode of Season 2 of 'The Last of Us,' titled 'The Price,' there's a callback to a scene from the game that fans have been waiting for: Joel (Pedro Pascal) performs a stripped down version of Pearl Jam's 'Future Days' for Ellie (Bella Ramsey). The song captures the themes of loss and losing yourself, but also of moving forward together. And it's not the only instance of a pop song showcasing characters' emotions — in 'Day One,' the fourth episode of Season 2, Ellie performs an acoustic cover of A-ha's 'Take on Me' as Dina (Isabela Merced) walks in and gently persuades her to continue playing the tender rendition. It's another adaptation from the video game that signals the kindling of the relationship between Ellie and Dina.
'Bella is playing the guitar in the scene where Ellie plays the guitar and sings 'Take on Me' to Dina. That's Bella. No tricks,' said Craig Mazin, co-creator of 'The Last of Us,' in an interview earlier this year.
For Neil Druckmann, co-creator of the series and the video game franchise, he knew that when Ramsey was cast, the actor's musical abilities would be an asset for future installments. 'I remember seeing a video of them playing and singing and talking to Craig and being like, 'Oh, they're ready to go for if we get to Season 2,'' he said.
Ramsey, however, isn't alone in their musical abilities. Over the course of the season in interviews with the cast and creators of the series, it became clear that music was a shared passion that bonded them on and off screen. Here, we collect some of their thoughts on music and performing together.
For Bella Ramsey, music has been another creative outlet that brings them joy.
In an interview before the launch of Season 2, Ramsey would only tease the possibility of Ellie picking up a guitar like in the game, but did share that making music is something they were doing 'quietly at the moment.'
'Up until recently, I've been very embarrassed by music and not very confident in it at all, my own music,' Ramsey told The Times. But 'through the producers that I've been working with [and] an amazing music manager, Tom, I feel really excited about it now.'
While Ramsey isn't quite sure when they'll be releasing any of their own music — they headed directly into production of an indie film following 'The Last of Us' press tour — they said that when they do, it will 'probably [be] in a sneaky way.'
'Making music has sort of given me the same feelings of like joy and satisfaction that being on set gives me,' Ramsey said.
If you follow Gabriel Luna on Instagram, many of the stories and posts he's published over the course of the second season have featured him performing on red carpets or with his castmates, jamming during down time on the set of the show. (While in London for one of the show's premieres, he 'bought a guitar because my hands were just itching.')
In an interview tied to the third episode, he spoke about the mutual admiration between the actors in the cast: 'There's real love there, even among the people who are onscreen nemeses, mortal enemies. I think that's what makes it safe to hate each other, to seek each other's demise [onscreen].'
That love is evident in those jam sessions, which have included covers of the Cranberries and Radiohead. But a video featuring him strumming a guitar with his young castmate Ezra Agbonkhese, who plays Tommy's son Benjamin, is one of the sweetest. Agbonkhese and Luna duet to 'Off Road Racing Truck' by Twenty Trucks, which you guessed it, is about racing trucks.
According to Young Mazino, guitars were a lifesaver on the set of 'The Last of Us.'
'We all brought a guitar without even telling each other so there was always a guitar on set,' Mazino told The Times in advance of the show's fifth episode. 'Bella, Isabella, Gabriel … Somebody would be playing some tune or a song, and if we knew it, we join in [or] we learn it.'
The world of the series is plenty bleak with the ever present threat of the fungal infection that turns human hosts into ravenous, zombie-like creatures. In Season 2, Mazino's character Jesse had to track his closest friends, who are on a quest for vengeance, into a war zone. He explained that everybody's love of music and 'trad[ing] songs like Pokémon' helped provide some needed levity during marathon shooting days where things tended to get heavy.
'Isabella and Bella would randomly break out into an a cappella somewhere,' Mazino said. 'I could just hear their angelic voices in the mix while I'm brooding in a corner getting ready.'