Riley Abel
A lost friend whose sacrifice shaped Ellie’s resilience in a broken world.
Riley Abel is a character in the American post-apocalyptic drama television series The Last of Us, appearing in the episode "Left Behind." She is the best friend of Ellie (Bella Ramsey). In the episode, a flashback shows Ellie spending time with Riley in Boston. Riley is portrayed by Storm Reid, whose casting was announced on January 14, 2022. Reid was unfamiliar with the game prior to her casting; when approached to star in the show, she asked family and friends for their opinions on the game. She watched snippets of gameplay to understand the emotion, but otherwise avoided the game to ensure an original take on the role.
Quick Facts
- First appearance
- The Last of Us: Left Behind
Lore & Background
Riley Abel was Ellie's best friend at a military boarding school run by the Federal Disaster Response Agency (FEDRA) in Boston, Massachusetts. Several months before the events of the main story, Riley had joined the Fireflies—a rebel group opposing FEDRA—and left Ellie alone at the school for weeks. Riley took Ellie to an abandoned mall, where Ellie was overjoyed to experience an escalator, carousel, photo booth, and arcade. When Ellie found Riley's bed and homemade bombs, she confronted Riley about the Fireflies' violent philosophies.
Riley revealed the Fireflies were moving her to the Atlanta Quarantine Zone, and she brought Ellie to the mall to say goodbye. Ellie initially stormed out but returned, and the two danced together. Ellie desperately pleaded with Riley not to leave, and Riley agreed. They kissed.
An infected, drawn to the noise, attacked the pair. Ellie eventually killed it, but both she and Riley had been bitten. Riley suggested they let themselves turn together, arguing that no matter how little time together they had left, it was worth fighting for.
Reader's Guide
The episode "Left Behind" is an adaptation of The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014), an expansion pack to the video game on which the series is based. The episode was written by series co-creator Neil Druckmann and directed by Liza Johnson. Johnson played the game after being assigned to direct. For Riley's first appearance in the comic book The Last of Us: American Dreams, artist Faith Erin Hicks and developers at Naughty Dog created an original fictional arcade game, The Turning, to circumvent issues with licensing; for the television series, Druckmann and Mazin were able to use Mortal Kombat II (1993), the game on which The Turning was based. The episode was filmed in January and February 2022 in Calgary, Alberta.
Did You Know?
- Reid worked on the series for about a month.
- The scene at the arcade was improvised; Ramsey and Reid were playing a working version of Mortal Kombat II.
- Reid found the final scene emotional to perform as it was one of the last filmed.
- Ramsey and Reid had little time to bond prior to production but became close over the course of production; Reid called Ramsey 'Mom' in one take.
More in History & The Outbreak
Elsewhere in The Last of Us
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