The Ghost Rider is about to fight zombies.
Gabriel Luna, who played the MCU Ghost Rider on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, has joined Pedro Pascal in the upcoming HBO adaptation of the hit video game The Last of Us.
Luna joins a growing high-profile cast bringing to life the Sony Playstation game, The Last of Us.
The Last of Us journey
Released on the PS3 in 2013, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us is set twenty years after a deadly pandemic seized the world. Spread via pollen, the virus causes those infected to mutate into vicious, animalistic zombie-like creatures called “Clickers” after the sound they make.
Some are mutated further with fungus growing from their faces and bodies, and the worst cases can barely be called human.
With society collapsing, many live in walled cities under a military dictatorship, just trying to survive.
Smuggler Joel, who lost his daughter in the initial outbreak, is contacted by a resistance group called the Fireflies, who offer a big payday to transport a young teenage girl named Ellie to their contacts across the country.
Ellie is so important because she is somehow immune to the virus and therefore holds the key to a possible cure.
The game plays as a third-person action-adventure as Joel and Ellie must travel throughout the countryside and abandoned cities. They have to battle not only Clickers but brutal human gangs.
Acclaimed for its action, setting, amazing storyline, and realistic characters, the game was a smash hit that won over 200 “Game of the Year” awards. A sequel was released in 2020.
Gabriel Luna’s role on The Last of Us
Playing Joel is Pedro Pascal, best known for his roles as Oberyn on Game of Thrones and the title character of The Mandalorian. Ellie is played by another GOT face, Bella Ramsey, who portrayed Lynna Mormont.
Luna has appeared in films such as Terminator: Dark Fate and is best known for playing Robbie Reyes, aka Ghost Rider on Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD. There had been brief plans for a spin-off series on the character, but they fell through.
Luna will play Tommy, Joel’s younger brother. Unlike Joel, who has been long broken and embittered by his experiences surviving this world, Tommy is still optimistic and sees Ellie as a sign of hope.
Neil Duckermann, one of the game’s creators, will handle writing duties with Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), and Kantemir Balagov will direct the pilot.
The Last of Us will be the second of Naughty Dog’s games to be adapted for the screen. Tom Holland is set to play adventurer Nathan Drake in a big-screen version of the company’s hit Uncharted franchise premiering in 2022.
While no date is set, The Last of Us is expected to debut on HBO in 2022. Luna’s casting enhances the cast that promises to put this show among the first big HBO projects next year.