The Last of Us season 2 was not well-regarded by some vocal voices online, and now, star Bella Ramsey has spoken out about the negative reactions. The Last of Us season 1 premiered on January 15, 2023, and was beloved by audiences and critics. The video game adaptation’s first season holds a 96% certified fresh critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 86% audience score.
The second season was still well-liked by critics, earning a 91% certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, but some audience members were not so kind. The Last of Us season 2 has earned an audience score of 37%, meaning more than half of the audience members who left reviews did not like the show’s sophomore season. Some also made memes poking fun at Ramsey on the show.
While a guest on the podcast The Awardist, Ramsey discussed how they have decided not to read or listen to negative critiques of their presence on the show. The actor also noted how the harsh criticisms of The Last of Us season 2’s main characters don’t actually affect the series, so there’s no reason to pay the noise any mind.
Ramsay also discussed how haters could simply tune out if they don’t enjoy the show. Check out Ramsey’s comments below:
“There’s nothing I can do about it anyway. The show is out. There’s nothing that can be changed or altered. So I’m like, there’s not really any point in reading or looking at anything. People are, of course, entitled to their opinions. But it doesn’t affect the show, it doesn’t affect how the show continues or anything in any way. They’re very separate things to me. So no, I just don’t really engage.”
“You don’t have to watch it. If you hate it that much, the game exists. You can just play the game again. If you do want to watch it, hope you enjoy it.”
What This Means For The Last Of Us
Despite online backlash concerning Ramsey’s character and other choices made in the show’s second season, The Last of Us will be receiving a season 3. The upcoming season is expected to answer The Last of Us’ biggest questions. Season 3 will hopefully be released in 2027, and its primary focus will now be seeing events from Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) point of view, with Ramsey’s Ellie still playing a role.
It seems that the backlash Ramsey discussed on The Awardist is not the reason they are stepping back as the central character of the series, but rather because the video game has players playing as Abby for half of the game. It seems that criticisms did not affect the show as Ramsey said, and the creatives are staying faithful to the games.
While it is partly a video game adaptation’s job to not let the audience down, sometimes, viewers can be very hard to please. Some attacked Ramsey and other parts of the show that had nothing to do with the plot or writing, which speaks to how negative online spaces can be when users have the benefit of hiding behind anonymity.
However, it seems Ramsey has a great mindset when it comes to dealing with hate and is not letting online users bring them down. Hopefully, even those with criticisms can be respectful when The Last of Us season 3 eventually drops.
The Last Of Us
8/10
- Release Date
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January 15, 2023
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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Craig Mazin
- Directors
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Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado
- Writers
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Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin
