Comic-Con's Hall H is notorious for the big surprises that movie studios trot out to the hall's 6,000+ screaming fans. Already at Comic-Con 2014, fans have been treated to surprise appearances by director Christopher Nolan and star Matthew McConaughey of the upcoming blockbuster "Interstellar." Now a second big surprise has happened, and it's a juicy one.
At a Screen Gems panel on July 25, the Hall H crowd was stunned when fan-favorite director Sam Raimi ("Spider-Man," "The Evil Dead") took the stage, accompanied by writer Neil Druckman. They were there to talk about the big-screen adaptation of last year's award-winning video game The Last of Us. Raimi is not directing the film, but he's producing it, and Druckman, of developer Naughty Dog, is the creator and writer behind the game. The duo announced that Druckman is also writing the script for the movie. They cautioned fans not to get too hyped up over this news, since the movie is still "years away," currently in the earliest stages of development.
The big news came minutes later when Druckman spoke up to name-drop the actress they have in mind for the all-important role of Ellie. In the game, Ellie is a 14-year-old survivor of an apocalyptic fungal plague who carries a natural genetic immunity that the human race may need to survive. She's guided across the U.S. by a tragedy-damaged but deadly man named Joel.
So who are Raimi and Druckman talking to for the role of Ellie? None other than Maisie Williams, better known to "Game of Thrones" fans as the vengence-seeking youngster Arya Stark. The news was met with whoops of approval in Hall H, since game fans have been very vocal about their desire to see Williams in the role. (They favor Josh Brolin or Hugh Jackman for Joel.) Druckman cautioned fans that it's not a done deal yet.
Still, he said that Williams is so high on the idea that she wanted to join them on stage at the Screen Gems panel. (She reportedly had a Comic-Con scheduling conflict related to an Entertainment Weekly photo shoot for "Game of Thrones.") Druckman then asked fans to ask Williams about "The Last of Us" at the "Game of Thrones" Hall H panel later in the day.
The panel also revealed that the movie will be extremely faithful to the game, although Druckman had at one point considered changing the ending of the story. Raimi apparently convinced him to stick to the original ending, since it's perfectly fitting.
