Work on HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us continues to chug along, with the creators and directors working towards recreating the original game with a few key tweaks. Part of the early discussion amongst fans, as with pretty much every adaptation, is who will be cast and in what roles. Recently, yet another major character has an official casting decision with Gabriel Luna being chosen for a key role, which is certainly going to give fans something to talk about.

As fans of The Last of Us game series know, there are a handful of characters who basically must appear in the show, regardless of how much the story is tweaked. Beyond Ellie and Joel themselves, who are the protagonists of the original game, there are a few vital secondary characters as well, one of whom is Joel's brother, Tommy, who appears at several points in the original story.

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In the prologue of The Last of Us, as the zombie outbreak begins to wreak havoc on civilization, Joel attempts to take his daughter to safety, while being helped along by his brother Tommy. At some point, the two get split up and Joel encounters a soldier who has been ordered to shoot anyone in the area, which leads to Joel's daughter getting shot. Tommy returns shortly after to save Joel's life, but it's too late for his daughter, which leads to a jump forward in time, where the rest of the game takes place.

Without wishing to spoil too much, Tommy also has another appearance in the original game, making him a significant player in the story and also an important contrast to Joel's self-interested survival mentality. So it's not surprising to see that the character now has an official casting for the HBO series. As is being reported by Variety, Gabriel Luna from Terminator: Dark Fate has been cast in the role, where he will play Tommy to Pedro Pascal's version of Joel.

While the writer and creative director of the original The Last of Us game, Neil Druckmann, has said that the show will deviate from the games in some ways, there will also be large parts that are practically identical. The casting of Tommy seems to indicate that at least the broad strokes of the plot are similar and that certain scenes will likely be close to how fans remember them from the games.

Filming for the Last of Us series is scheduled to begin in July, but the show still doesn't have a firm release date. Hopefully, as casting decisions are made and filming begins, fans will get a look at the series as things start to get rolling on production.

The Last of Us adaptation will be available on HBO.

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Source: Variety