Bella Ramsey Reflects on That Stalker Scene in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Premiere

Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2, Episode 1.

The Last of Us star Bella Ramsey has pulled back the curtain on one of the small changes from the game in Season 2, Episode 1. The first episode in the highly anticipated second season sees Ellie (Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) go out on patrol before coming across a small building they decide to clear out. This is the same thing that happens in the first few hours of the game, but there is one major difference. In The Last of Us Part II, the only Infected inside this building are Runners and Clickers, but in The Last of Us Season 2, Ellie faces off against a Stalker, which doesn’t appear in the game until later. Ramsey recently caught up with Collider’s Christina Radish and explained what it was like filming the scene with the first Stalker in live-action:

“It’s so typical. Dina is like, ‘Stay where you are. Don’t move.’ And Ellie is like, ‘Yeah, got it.’ And then, goes in has a wander around, obviously. She’s just surveying and thinking about what this place would have been like, back in 2003, before the world as we knew it ended. And then, the Stalker that really comes out of nowhere really freaks Ellie out because it’s not behaving in a way that any of the other Infected she’s ever come across have behaved. She screams, ‘Run at me!’ I just think it’s very creepy. She just doesn’t know what to expect, what’s going to happen, what this thing is doing. Filming that was a lot of fun and kind of spooky. Watching it, I find scary because, obviously, the sound wasn’t in. The way that it’s been edited together makes it literally a thousand times scarier. When I first saw that, my heart was racing, for sure, even though I knew what was about to happen.“

During the same chat with Radish, Ramsey also teased that the Stalker wouldn’t be the last type of Infected the audience sees in The Last of Us Season 2. Season 1 introduced the classic Runners, the most basic type of Infected that closely resemble zombies, and Bloaters, a larger form of Infected that can withstand much more damage. Stalkers are a different breed, closely resembling a normal human but also not mindlessly aggressive — they will wait and attack their prey at the opportune time. There are two more types of Infected that we know of in The Last of Us universe; the first are Shamblers, which land somewhere between runners and bloaters regarding size, but can also shoot acid from their pores. Then there’s the Rat King, which is a gargantuan combo of all the infected types.

What Do Reviews for ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Say?

The Last of Us Season 2 has earned enough reviews on Rotten Tomatoes to be given a 93% score from critics, a “certified fresh” rating that falls just below the 96% earned by Season 1. Collider’s Ross Bonaime praised the series in his review, proclaiming that it “brilliantly improves on the video game.” The Last of Us was written and created for television by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. The latter is the creator of both games, and the former is known for his work on other series, such as Chernobyl.

The first episode of The Last of Us Season 2 is now streaming. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of the series, and watch The Last of Us on Max.

The Last Of Us

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Directors

Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado

Writers

Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin