Season 3 of The Last of Us is going to look a little different with Danny Ramirez‘s role as Manny being recast.
Multiple outlets reported on Monday, December 29, that Ramirez, 33, would be exiting the show due to scheduling conflicts. He originally joined the cast in season 2 as Manny, who was described as “a loyal soldier whose sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most.”
Manny is a former member of the Fireflies rebel militia group and was working with Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) to get revenge on Joel (Pedro Pascal) for the massacre he carried out on the Firefly hospital to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
Based on the video game of the same name by Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us explores a postapocalyptic world overrun by a fungal infection that turns people into zombie-like monsters. At the center of the story is smuggler Joel, who has to escort immune teenager Ellie across America to the revolutionaries hoping to find a cure.
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Season 2 delivered a shocking twist — that fans of the video game saw coming — when Pascal’s character died in the second episode.
“I’m in active denial,” Pascal, 50, told Entertainment Weekly in April. “I realize this more and more as I get older, I find myself slipping into denial that anything is over.”
He added, “I know that I’m forever bonded to so many members of the experience and just have to see them under different circumstances but never will under the circumstances of playing Joel on The Last of Us.”
The hit HBO series found a way to keep Pascal involved in flashback form throughout the rest of the season.
“Just to see Pedro and Bella one more time; to see their happiest they’ve ever been, maybe the saddest they’ve been with each other, and the angriest they’ve ever been,” Druckmann told The Hollywood Reporter in May. “It was such a joy to explore all those nuances along the way. I’m extremely proud of how it turned out, and I was really nervous.”
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After The Last of Us was renewed for a third season, it was confirmed that Ramsey, 22, would not be leading the franchise anymore.
Dever’s Abby will now be the focus of the show, with the actress, 29, telling Deadline in April, “The scripts, the dialogue and the story is so amazing that I’m not at all going into season 3 with any sort of fear or hesitation. It’s pure excitement to be part of such a cool show.”
Dever previously weighed in on the backlash that came with playing the infamous character responsible for Joel’s death.
“It’s hard not to stop myself from looking at [the criticism] every once in a while, especially going into this, for sure,” Dever told Screen Rant in March. “And I want to do this character justice and make the fans proud by bringing her to life in this kind of way.”
