How Old Is Ellie In The Last Of Us?

"The Last of Us" video games and the HBO series are vivid, visceral depictions of a fungus-driven zombie apocalypse scenario that devours all but the sturdiest and the luckiest. Grizzled survivor Joel Miller (voiced by Troy Baker in the games, played by Pedro Pascal on the show) and young, immune Ellie WIlliams (Ashley Johnson in the game, Bella Ramsey on the show) have to navigate the dangerous, uncivilized remains of what used to be the United States in order to potentially save the world ... or, failing that, to find a morsel of peace. 

Against this backdrop, celebration is rare, and people are usually too busy in their daily toil to pay attention to things like birthdays. As such, it's easy to just assume that Joel and Ellie are roughly the respective ages of their actors and be done with it. But that's not really the case, is it? Since Bella Ramsey was born in September 2003, by that logic, Ellie would have been 19 years old when "The Last of Us" season 1 aired, and 21 during the events of the complex, dark season 2. Considering that Ellie is specifically portrayed as a young teen in season 1, this is way off. So, out of scientific interest, let's find out what age the character really is.   

In the games and the show alike, Ellie's exact age is actually pretty well-documented if the player and/or viewer pays attention to details. What muddies the waters somewhat is the different timelines of the two. In the games, the Cordyceps outbreak is in 2013 and the main story takes place in 2033, while the show opts to move the outbreak to 2003 and the first season is set around 2023. 

The video game Ellie's first chronological appearance is in the comic miniseries "The Last of Us: American Dreams," which takes place 19 years after the outbreak and one year before the events of the first game, and specifically notes that Ellie is 13 years old. In "The Last of Us," Ellie gives her age as 14, and the time skip between the first game and "The Last of Us Part II" means that she's 19 years old in the sequel.

Fortunately, the HBO adaptation opts against making things any more confusing. The promotional material for "The Last of Us" season 1 explicitly gave Ellie's age as 14, and season 2 opener "Future Days" notes immediately after the opening credits that the story has jumped five years forward ... which means that here, too, Ellie's age is 19. (We also see a sign at the barn party that says "Happy New Year 2029," which confirms the specific year.) Some of the events of those five skipped years — including a particularly nice birthday surprise and the tragic incident involving Joe Pantoliano's Eugene — are chronicled in the Joel flashbacks of episode 6, "The Price." 

Both seasons of "The Last of Us" are currently available to stream in their entirety on HBO Max.