‘The Last of Us’ creators answer the question: Will Bella Ramsey return as Ellie in season two?

While the last episode of season one of The Last of Us might not end on a traditional cliffhanger, it certainly does leave a question hanging in the air once the closing credits have rolled. The next season of the series will adapt the game’s sequel, The Last of Us Part II which takes place five years after the events of the first game that was adapted in season one. So does that mean another actress besides Bella Ramsey will have to be found to play Ellie?

Ramsey was seventeen throughout the filming of the series’ first season and is now nineteen years old. Ellie is 14 years old in the show meaning that she’s now the current “correct” age to play the character. And even if that weren’t the case showrunner Craig Mazin has made it clear that he’s going to “dance with who brung ’em” when it comes to Ramsey.

“When she joined us, she was 17. She’s only, she’s 19 now,” Mazin told Deadline. “Which by the way is the age of Ellie in The Last of Us, part 2,” he adds.

Mazin goes on to address the early criticism of Ramsey’s casting stating, “People were like, ‘she doesn’t look like [Ellie]. I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Just watch what happens. And now they know.” While Ramsey’s portrayal of Ellie seems likely to be as memorable as that of Ashley Johnson’s in the original game many have feared that the soon-to-be twenty-something actor would be aging out of the role between seasons.

“I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Just watch what happens,” says Mazin. “We will present things, but [season two] will be different. It will be different just as this season was different. Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be fairly different. It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I wanna make. But we are making it with Bella.”