Portrayed by Ashley Johnson, Anna Williams is an important supporting character in HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama sequence ‘The Last of Us.’ She is Ellie’s mother, who handed away sooner than the start of the sequence. In the season 1 finale, titled ‘Look for the Light,’ the chilly opening features a flashback scene presumably set in 2008 or 2009, throughout which Anna makes an look. As loads of likelihood is you’ll know, the HBO current depends on a 2013 Naughty Dog on-line sport of the similar title. There, Johnson portrays Ellie Williams. With her portrayal of Anna, Johnson joins the likes of Troy Baker and Jeffrey Pierce throughout the guidelines of voice actors from the game who has moreover appeared throughout the current. If the events depicted in episode 9 have made you ponder whether or not Anna is ineffective and Johnson left ‘The Last of Us,’ we obtained you coated. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Is Anna ineffective?
Yes, Anna is ineffective in ‘The Last of Us.’ Anna was solely talked about throughout the genuine video video games. Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of the sequence and co-director of the game, believed that Anna’s story was important to the narrative. After the game had been already shipped out, he penned a quick story on the character, and it was presupposed to be an animated temporary, nevertheless the enterprise lastly fell apart. For a while, there was an thought to include it as a component of ‘The Last of Us: Left Behind,’ a downloadable extension pack to the game, nevertheless that moreover didn’t come to fruition.
Ultimately, Druckmann and sequence co-creator Craig Mazin decided to include Anna throughout the current. In the season 1 finale, we see Anna, a visibly pregnant girl, working by means of the woods. She enters a house and calls out, likely for her best buddy Marlene (Merle Dandridge), who arrives loads later. As Anna settles down alongside together with her once more in opposition to the wall, a clicker assaults, nevertheless Anna manages to kill it alongside together with her folding knife. She all of a sudden hears her baby crying and discovers she has given starting amidst an adrenaline rush whereas averting the clicker. She moreover notices that the contaminated has bitten her.
When Marlene lastly arrives, Anna lies that she decrease the umbilical twine sooner than she was bitten and asks Marlene to take the new child and kill her (Anna). She moreover requests Marlene to offer the folding knife to her daughter. Initially reluctant, Marlene lastly acquiesces and shoots Anna. In 2023, Marlene reveals to Joel that because of this of Anna was bitten whereas she was pregnant with Ellie, the latter has developed her immunity in opposition to Cordyceps.
Did Ashley Johnson Leave The Last of Us?
Given her character is ineffective, it’s safe to think about that Johnson has left the sequence. In an interview with Variety, Druckmann acknowledged that casting Johnson as Anna appeared poetic to them. “In our conversations, I brought it up to Craig and he was immediately excited by it, or as he would say ‘activated,’” he outlined. “We brought it to life in the most beautiful, poetic way, which is Ashley Johnson playing Ellie’s mom and she was the original actor for Ellie.”
Aside from ‘The Last of Us’ video video games, Johnson has lent her voice to Peter Shepherd / Robo-Peter throughout the Nineties animate sequence ‘Jumanji,’ Gwen Tennyson throughout the ‘Ben 10’ universe, Tulip Olsen / Lake / the Steward in ‘Infinity Train,’ and Pike Trickfoot in ‘The Legend of Vox Machina.’ She has appeared in live-action initiatives equivalent to ‘Growing Pains,’ ‘Kelly Kelly,’ ‘The Killing,’ ‘Blindspot,’ ‘The Help,’ and ‘The Avengers.’
Reflecting on her character, Johnson suggested TV Line, “I think, knowing that she and Marlene had known each other their whole lives, at least for me, I believe that that grit was already there for Anna. Which is why she’s still here in this world, at least at this moment in time that we see her. I think she’s tough. She’s just trying to live in this world and has been surviving up until this point. To get to the point that she is — she’s like, ’I’m pregnant, and I’m having this kid in this really terrible world already’ — I think it speaks to how connection is so important in this world.”
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