How Old Is Ellie in The Last of Us Seasons 1 and 2?

Ellie Williams, co-protagonist of The Last of Us Part 1 and HBO’s The Last of Us Season 1, is a teenager with a gift that could save the world. But just how old is Ellie in HBO’s The Last of Us Seasons 1 and 2? Here’s what you need to know, with some spoilers for Season 1.

How Old Ellie Williams Is in The Last of Us Seasons 1 and 2

Ellie Williams, or just Ellie, is 14 years old in HBO’s The Last of Us Season 1 and will be 19 years old in Season 2, as discussed by showrunner Craig Mazin (via Variety).

At least, she’s fourteen when Joel, Tess, and the audience meet her. In fact, the show does something the games don’t. It shows us Ellie’s birth when she is handed over to Marlene by her mother, who has been infected.

Ellie is fiercely independent, partly through necessity. She’s been living at a military school, and her only friend there is Riley. Ellie loses Riley in an incident that ultimately leads to the Fireflies handing her over to Joel, but we get the sense that she doesn’t quite trust them.

The Last of Us Part 2 features a five-year time jump, and the show follows along with that. The game features a sequence where Ellie and Joel are celebrating Ellie’s sixteenth birthday, but you can expect her to be 19 for most of HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2.

Mazin hasn’t shared any information about Season 3’s timeline, but Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann has already confirmed (via GQ) that Season 2 will only cover part of The Last of Us Part 2‘s story. So, if Mazin and Druckmann decide to add in another time jump, Ellie could be 20 in Season 3, assuming the show gets one.

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How Old Was Bella Ramsey Filming HBO’s The Last of Us?

Fans were slightly puzzled as to how HBO was going to handle The Last of Us’s time jump, given that the second season started filming less than a year after Season 1 finished airing. However, Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie, was well placed to portray a 19-year-old Ellie.

Born in September 2003, Ramsey is currently 21 years old and was 17 when she started filming The Last of Us Season 1. She was 20 while filming Season 2, meaning that she was closer to Ellie’s true age (19) than she was when filming Season 1.

As pointed out by Screen Rant, some fans have complained that she’s too young to play Ellie in The Last of Us Season 2. Naughty Dog had the luxury of mocap with The Last of Us Part 2, meaning they could take actor Ashley Johnson’s performance and put on whatever face they liked. But Season 1 has me convinced that no matter how old Ramsey looks, she can successfully portray the vengeful Ellie we see in The Last of Us Part 1.

So, the answer to how old Ellie is in HBO’s The Last of Us Seasons 1 and 2 is she’s 14 in Season 1 and 19 in Season 2.