Creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin say the new scenes with Marlene and Ellie in the premiere will bring "a greater payoff" by the end of the show.
That was an opportunity to start showing more of that relationship with Marlene, which then has a greater payoff later because we've established the relationship more explicitly here." Baker will appear later in The Last of Us as James, a minor character from the games that has been expanded on for the show. Scenes between her character and Ramsey's Ellie confirm that Marlene is somehow linked to the girl's origin story. The BAFTA Award winner is the only legacy actor from the original video games to play the same role in the live-action series adaptation, that of Marlene, the leader of the rebel group known as the Fireflies. "Don't ever stand next to her in a picture," warns Neil Druckmann, who created the games and now heads the show with Mazin. She was a little more weathered and [had] a little more grey in her hair."