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Bella Ramsey has proven they are Ellie with their incredible acting in both Season 1 and the first two episodes of Season 2.

On March 13, exactly a month before the premiere episode of Season 2 of The Last of Us was released, British Vogue posted a video on the social media platform TikTok. It was a slideshow displaying a photoshoot of their April 2025 cover star: Bella Ramsey.

Bella Ramsey, who plays the main character Ellie in the massively popular television adaptation of the video game The Last of Us, has been subject to endless amounts of cyberbullying and hate since being cast as the character in Feb. 2021. The mainstream criticism derives from the difference in appearance between Ellie in the original video game. While Ellie in the game has freckles, dark auburn hair, and light-green irises, Ramsey has a slightly different facial structure, brown eyes, and darker hair. 

In all honesty, it’s quite implausible to demand that the casting director of The Last of Us find someone who fits the fictional character’s physical appearance perfectly. Ellie isn’t a real person, and it’s silly to complain about Ramsey’s portrayal of her when characters such as Spider-Man have been acted by four different men, all of whom look very different from each other. 

While some of these criticisms are respectful of Ramsey, other fans of the game have taken the judgment to an unacceptable level. These people are so “protective” of the original Ellie and, even after the release of an Emmy-winning first season, are still so furious about the casting that they’ve decided to twist a false narrative around Ramsey—one that claims the actor has Down syndrome because of their looks.

Comments such as “the down of us” are so prevalent on every single piece of media Ramsey is involved in, whether it be a YouTube press interview or fan edit, that the actor had to delete all their personal social media accounts last summer. 

These comments were omnipresent throughout the comment section of this particular British Vogue video, totaling thousands out of 13,700 written opinions. While some were attempting to defend the actor, many, many more were degrading Ramsey. 

Not only are these comments incredibly disrespectful and downright mean, but they also reveal a terrifying aspect of social discrimination. These remarks are ableist, displaying how the faces behind these devices would treat someone who actually has Down syndrome. While everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that’s no excuse for cyberbullying and making completely stupid criticism of someone who is simply doing their job and also to an entire community of individuals around the globe.

Unfortunately, when, in this British Vogue profile, Ramsey dropped the information that they found out they are autistic during filming Season 1 of The Last of Us, cynics utilized their diagnosis as fuel for their hatred, seeing it as justification that Ramsey is unfit for the role of Ellie. 

In addition to Ramsey’s condition, they are also nonbinary. In Ramsey’s case, they don’t have any preferred pronouns and are gender-fluid. Although this has nothing to do with how Ramsey portrays Ellie in the television series, their state of existence is being turned against them. Other comments on social media gender Ramsey as “it”, which isn’t even a human pronoun, and completely objectifies Ramsey. It’s disgusting, and I truly believe these people are far too invested in their “love” of the original Ellie that they’ve been blindsided by misjudgment and abhorrence. 

Some other fans of the game aren’t this skewed in their perception of the actor, and instead claim that while Ramsey is a good actor in general, they just “don’t fit” the role and “don’t look enough” like Ellie. They say that due to Ramsey’s younger look, they were fine for Season 1 (Ellie is 14 in the first installment of the game), but are unfit for the mature, 19-year-old Ellie in Season 2. 

These fans say this as if Ramsey is entirely incapable of “correctly” acting as Ellie, and, therefore, provide a new casting opportunity for Season 3. They say actress Cailee Spaeny is perfect for Ellie, going so far as to edit clips from Season 1 and deep-fake Spaeny’s face onto Ramsey’s.

Spaeny is an American actress best known for her role in Sofia Coppola’s biographical film Priscilla, in which she had the leading role as Priscilla Presley. She’s also acted in the recent war drama Civil War and sci-fi thriller Alien: Romulus. 

Most critics consider Spaeny to be “perfect” for Ellie because of her similar physical appearance to the character. Like the original Ellie, Spaeny has a light dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose and, overall, bears a likeness to her with a similar bone structure. 

An interesting fact about Spaeny is that she did audition for the role of Ellie—but was ultimately turned down in favor of Ramsey.

Although Spaeny certainly can act, Ramsey has already proven that they are deserving of the role, garnering massive praise from critics and audiences, along with numerous nominations from nearly every major television award show in 2023, including an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. 

Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have heard the overwhelming comments of skeptics and further elaborated on their decision to cast Ramsey on April 6.

In an interview with GameRadar, Druckmann, who also happens to be the creator of the original game and wrote Ellie’s character, said, “We’ve considered recasting Bella exactly zero percent…Bella is such an incredible actor that not only are they older, but they’ve also experienced so much trauma in Season 1, and so many things have happened in that five-year gap that that’s part of the mystery of [Season 2]. When you’re watching Bella perform, you could just see this maturity behind their eyes. It seems very simple, but it’s very difficult to pull off and very few actors can pull it off the way that they have.”

Mazin elaborated, saying, “So, to us, it’s always been less about physicality and always about the heart and soul. I think they did an incredible job. We didn’t actually do anything to age them up. We just wrote the character to be older. And, big surprise, Bella Ramsey portrays it gorgeously.”

Not only do both Mazin and Druckmann unabashedly believe in Ramsey’s talents, but so does the original voice of Ellie in the game: Ashley Johnson.

As Johnson has said multiple times on many occasions, Ellie is a part of her heart, and the role is very dear to her. When asked about her opinion on Ramsey as Ellie in May 2023, Johnson said, “I first met Bella on set, and she’s Ellie come to life from the game. She has the essence of Ellie. She has the strength. I instantly felt a connection with her because we both care so much about this character. I don’t feel like anybody else could play this part as well as her because so much of her already is Ellie.”

It seems to me that since the creator of the game and the voice of Ellie think that Ramsey is perfect for the role, it solidifies the immutable fact that Bella Ramsey is Ellie, at least in the TV show adaptation (may I remind you, an adaptation). Many naysayers should quell their unwelcome commentary at this point, but unfortunately, many don’t see Druckmann and Johnson’s belief in Ramsey to be enough for them. 

Reactions to Ramsey’s casting are similar to those of Leah Sava Jeffries being cast as Annabeth in the book-to-TV series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, as well as Nico Parker being cast as Astrid in the live-action adaptation of How to Train Your Dragon. 

Jeffries and Parker (who played Joel’s daughter Sarah in the first episode of The Last of Us) received backlash due to, again, their dissimilar looks to those from the book and animated film, respectively. Both Annabeth and Astrid have fair, white skin and blond hair. However, Jeffries and Parker have gorgeous coils and darker skin. A fair amount of their reception with each role could be attributed to racism for the color of their skin, while Ramsey is being lobbied against for their “un-Hollywood” facial structure. 

In all three instances, it’s clear that the general public doesn’t dislike these actors for their acting ability—it’s primarily based on their looks. How to Train Your Dragon doesn’t even release until this coming June. These standards are fueled by unrealistic expectations for beauty on social media and especially in Hollywood, but that’s an editorial for another time.

Additionally, Ramsey, Jeffries, and Parker have legitimately done nothing wrong to garner this amount of discriminatory attention. Parker is 20, Ramsey is 21, and Jeffries is 15—they’re young actors doing their job. They’re all kind, charming, sweet, and funny, and in my opinion, negative observations against them never should have occurred in the first place. 

In global cinema and television nowadays, casting directors have made it clear that it’s not the exact physical resemblance that matters when choosing an actor for a role: it’s their ability to display the characteristics of the role they’re auditioning for. Can Ramsey embody the boisterous energy of Ellie, but also the calculated, reserved side of her? Can Parker show with her heart the fierceness of Astrid? Can Jeffries display the determination and pride of Annabeth?

The answer is yes. 

To some, characters are more than just relatable—they’re personal. Some audience members connect so intrinsically with a certain character that they feel this character is a part of them, as if they reflect a part of their soul onscreen.

This comes with a particular determination to “defend” the character, but it shouldn’t be at any cost. It shouldn’t be at the expense of the well-being of young actors who were chosen for a reason. True fans of the game, or for Parker and Jeffries, a movie and novel series, would easily be able to see how well these actors exemplify their respective personas, and the twist of their own personality they intertwine with their roles. Pessimists see only the physical differences at a surface level between the originals and the adaptations, choosing to ignore the actor’s talent and focusing on cynicism.

The Bella Ramsey-Ellie debate will probably continue well into the production of Season 3 of The Last of Us, and while doubters rage online, Ramsey will sip their black tea with oat milk and enjoy their life, free from the skepticism. 

Because Ramsey is an amazing person and even better actor, and whether or not you can see that, they are Ellie. Through and through.