Update, December 7: Offerman has been confirmed to be playing the role of Bill in the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Last of Us, replacing Con O'Neill in the role. The Chernobyl actor had been forced to depart the show due to a scheduling conflict.
Previously, December 6: Nick Offerman is the latest actor to join the upcoming The Last of Us live-action series according to a recent interview with Murray Bartlett, who is also playing a role in the upcoming video game adaptation for HBO.
Bartlett was interviewed by The Guardian and discussed his most recent role in the HBO satire The White Lotus, his experience filming during the COVID-19 lockdown, and gave some insight on the upcoming The Last of Us adaptation. During this last portion, he brought up that many of his scenes are with Offerman, who he says was "awesome" to play off of.
He also says that the script, co-written by Chernobyl's Craig Mazin "blew [his] head off," adding that "It’s an epic show, but beautifully human and intimate." Bartlett will be playing the character of Frank, the partner of Bill, a paranoid survivor played by Con O’Neill (Chernobyl). As for Offerman, what role he will play in the upcoming series is currently unknown, but viewers might recognize him from his previous roles, including Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation.
Along with Bartlett, O'Neill, and now Offerman, the upcoming series will see Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) star as Joel and Ellie, the unlikely pairing of a grizzled survivor and young immune girl who set out on a cross country journey to stray and create a cure for the cordyceps fungus infection that has ravaged the world.
The rest of the cast includes Anna Torv (Mindhunter) as Joel's smuggling partner, Tess, Merle Dandridge reprising her role from the games as Marlene, Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate) as Joel's younger brother, Tommy, and Nico Parker (Dumbo) as Joel's daughter, Sarah. The series is written by Mazin alongside director and creative director at Naughty Dog, Neil Druckmann, both of who also serve as executive producers on the project with Carolyn Strauss, Rose Lam, and Naughty Dog president Evan Wells, as well as Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan for of PlayStation Productions.
The Last of Us series adaptation is currently in production and is expected to release sometime in late 2022 on HBO Max. You can read the series' official synopsis down below.
The story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (portrayed by Pascal) – a hardened survivor – is hired to smuggle Ellie (portrayed by Ramsey) – a 14-year-old girl – out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the US and depend on each other for survival.