The new HBO series The Last of Us had a successful premiere – having received a strong critical reception and plenty of praise from fans. Of course, there are some trolls out there, with many targeting the show’s diverse cast. Now The Last of Us star Nico Parker has responded to the racist backlash.
She spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about her role as Sarah Miller. In the original video game, her character along with Pedro Pascal’s character Joel were both white. Now that their races have been changed for the television series, there has been some backlash from so-called fans.
As such, here’s what Parker had to say regarding the backlash. Notably, she chooses not to listen to anyone with a racist point-of-view:
“There are people for whom the game is incredibly important to them. But when it comes from a place where it’s just a disdain toward any kind of inclusivity, that’s where I don’t care. I don’t value that opinion and I don’t agree. I hope they can look past it and still enjoy the show. But I think inclusivity is incredibly important. If young kids watch the show and feel they’re represented through race or hair or anything, that’s ten times more important than anyone who doesn’t like it because they don’t like to see different people on their screen.”
Additionally, Pedro Pascal also noted to Yahoo that he ignores these comments. After all, as he puts it, “you can’t make everybody happy.” As he shared:
“You can’t make everybody happy. The game is very, very innovative in its inclusiveness. So really, it’s a way of honoring the original source material, the way that Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] have gone about casting and telling this story.”
The Last of Us was developed by Craig Mazin who worked alongside Neil Druckmann to write and executive produce. Kantemir Balagov directed the pilot episode with Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi having directed additional episodes.
In addition to Nico Parker and Pedro Pascal, the cast of The Last of Us includes Bella Ramsey, Troy Baker, and Ashley Johnson, as well as Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Jeffrey Pierce and Anna Torv.
Fans can currently stream The Last of Us via HBO Max. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for additional updates on the live-action adaptation of the iconic video game as we have them.