Who is Riley in The Last of Us and actress Storm Reid?

For episode 7, co-showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have drawn from other sources including The Last of Us: American Dreams, a comic book series written by Druckmann and Faith Erin Hicks, as well as The Last of Us: Left Behind, a DLC add-on to the game telling a standalone story revolving around Ellie and Riley, played by Storm Reid, which addresses Ellie's sexuality.

The HBO show has been dazzling fans week in, week out, and there's still plenty more to come with the first season spanning nine episodes.

Plus, the popular show, based on the games of the same name, has been renewed for season 2, so we'll get to see more of Joel and Ellie's stories - if they both make it out alive, that is.

After all, following the loss of Nico Parker's Sarah and Anna Torv's Tess among others, it's clear there's danger lurking around every corner.

Read on for everything you need to know about Storm Reid's character Riley as well as what happens to her in the series.

Who is Riley in The Last of Us?

In the world of The Last of Us, Riley is a key figure in Ellie's childhood. A close friend, trusted confidant and potential love interest, she is generally portrayed as being a little bit wiser and more proactive than Ellie – she gets involved with the activists known as the Fireflies while Ellie does not.

Although Riley did not appear in the original 2013 game, this character has become a fan favourite through spin-off material. She was introduced in the comic book series The Last of Us: American Dreams, before appearing on screen in the 2014 expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind (where she was played by Yaani King).

This piece of downloadable content (DLC) effectively added an extra chapter to the original game, using lengthy flashbacks to fill in details of Ellie's backstory prior to meeting Joel. It saw, among other things, Ellie and Riley goofing off in an abandoned mall. We'd highly recommend playing Left Behind if you haven't already had the pleasure. It's a terrific exploration of the world and offers massive insights into Ellie.

It has already been announced that Storm Reid (who you might recognise from Euphoria or A Wrinkle in Time) will be playing Riley in The Last of Us TV show.

Promotional materials like the image above, which shows Riley near a fairground carousel, have led fans to speculate that the flashbacks from Left Behind could be weaved into the Last of Us series. Certainly, the mention of Riley in episode 1 is a promising sign for fans of the character.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press about the changes that were made in adapting the game for TV, The Last of Us co-showrunner Craig Mazin (who developed the show with Neil Druckmann, the creative director of the games) did hint that material outside of the original game had been considered for inclusion.

Mazin told us: "There were so many things we got to do in the show that I was so excited about because they were either things that Neil had wanted to put in the game, but they didn't have time, or they were new things that they had thought of after [making the game]."

That quote suggests that fans of Left Behind will be pleased as The Last of Us continues its run. Hopefully, then, it won't be long before this mention of Riley is paid off!

Who is actress Storm Reid?

Reid has appeared in various critically acclaimed films and TV series, including 12 Years a Slave in 2013 and A Wrinkle in Time in 2018.

More recently, Reid has become well known for her role as Gia Bennett, the younger sister of Zendaya's Rue, in Euphoria, and she starred in the 2021 DC film The Suicide Squad.

Next, the actress will star in the films Missing and The Nun 2.

What happened to Riley in The Last of Us?

After getting Joel to safety and attempting to halt the bleeding from the stab wound he obtained at the end of episode 6, Ellie begins flashing back to the events shortly before the series's premiere in episode 7.

Set three weeks before The Last of Us episode 1, the story explains Ellie’s relationship with Riley before we see an infected host attacking the pair of them in the final sequence.

However, while previous episodes of The Last of Us have shown what happened to Ellie in the aftermath of the attack, Riley's fate remains unclear.

In an interview with Wired, Druckmann recently explained why he chose to leave Riley’s ending up to fans’ imagination.

“There's a book by David Mamet [where] he talks about how you try to enter a scene as late as possible so that the viewer is engaged and trying to fill in the backstory," he said. "And you leave as early as possible, so if there are things you don't have to show, you don't show them.

"This story, this arc, was about how Ellie leaves her childhood behind and becomes an adult. There is another story to tell there about what happens afterward, but in terms of this arc that was all we needed to tell and no more. You can fill it in yourself, or maybe one day I'll team up with Faith and tell the rest of the story.”

Read more on The Last of Us:

• The Last of Us TV show review - why it's worth watching
• The Last of Us meets The Mandalorian - Pedro Pascal on similarities
• The Last of Us film - why Sam Raimi movie died

The Last of Us is airing weekly on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW. Check out more of our Sci-Fi coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on this week.

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