Bella Ramsey Says "You Don't Have to Watch The Last of Us: Season 3"

0:00 What is happening magnusites? Well, like every news outlet that covers movies and television has this headline. Boy. So assuming this is going to piss people off. So Bella Ramsay basically told everybody that you don't have to watch it. You don't have to watch The Last of Us. You don't have to watch The Last of Us season 3 to be exact. So let me take a

0:45 look at this and see what this is all about here. HBO's The Last of Us has been one of the most hotly debated shows in recent memory. After a highly successful first season, it was good. The second season arrived with far more mixed reception, viewership drop offs, fan backlash, and heated conversations about the show's direction. Yes, I remember after, spoiler alert, after Joel is killed, uh, I watched the episode after that and that was it. I was just like not interested anymore. Now, Bella Ramsay, who plays Ellie, has decided to fire back at critics in a way that's raising

1:32 eyebrows, telling frustrated viewers that The Last of Us fans and The Last of Us fans that they simply don't have to watch anymore. Watch that, Bella. There was someone else that was talking like that. Rachel Zer, excuse me. And it seems as if things are not going very well career-wise for that woman right now. on the awardist podcast. Ramsay addressing the growing criticism over season 2. Rather than seeking to win back the disillusioned audience, she doubled down with a blunt response to The Last of Us fans who are complaining.

2:20 Quote, "You don't have to watch it." She said, "If you hate it that much, the game exists. You can just play the game again. You don't have to watch season 3. If you don't want to watch it, I if you want if you do want to watch it, I hope you enjoy it. Well, I want to hear her voice. Want to hear her voice to see if there was any malice in it. You don't have to watch it, which is very true. I mean, she's she has that freedom to say that. Although I I think if it if it were mwah it were mwah and I had a show that I wanted to do as

3:07 good as possible that I knew was controversial. I would just say hey uh we made some decisions in this show that may have been controversial. We hoped it would help the show, maybe even make it better. But you know uh I hope you do give it a shot and I hope you all really enjoy it. I think that would work. I think that would work and that would keep you friendly. But when you say you ain't got to watch it, that usually pisses people off and they're like, "Yeah, I'm not going to watch it." And isn't she a a kid? How old is Bella Ramsay? You know, she seems like she's a Let me see here. How old is Bella Ramsay? 21 years old. 21.

3:58 I thought she was like 14, 15 years old. What the hell? Oh man. Let me tell you something, Bella. If you ever after you pass 18 on up, people uh will come after you with much vitriol. You usually get a pass when you're below 18, but uh 21 and up especially, that's all adult there. Well, uh let's see here. It's the kind of comment that may feel good in the moment, but rarely plays well with the fans. See, uh in fact,

4:43 history has shown that one of the fastest ways to alienate your audience is to tell them to walk away. More often than not, they listen. Ramsay also admitted she avoided much of the online chatter about the show. Well, she should have if she wanted to keep her sanity, uh, saying she knew nothing could be changed about season 2 after it aired. Okay. Well, that was smart. Uh, that's a fair point, but it also echoes a broader sentiment we've seen from showrunners and actors in recent years. a tendency to dismiss criticism outright rather than engage with the fans that are actually uh with what the fans are actually saying. Yeah. You know, and there's a it's kind

5:30 of like a chain of command there with it, you know. Um, many actors, I think, sign on for a job, especially um when they're very desperate to break in and they may sign on to do things that they don't even know are going to be controversial or they know what is, but they need a job. They need to get paid. So, they do the job anyway. And um then it's kind of like I I'll iron the rest out later. I'll deal with the rest of it later. And I I don't know her, so I don't know why she took the role. But in today's climate, you need to know what role you're taking and you need to know what it is about really. What's the fandom like? What do they expect? Get to

6:16 know that character because especially in today's climate with um how Woke has destroyed so many characters, you want to make sure you do it right. Now, they did season two from what I understand almost exactly the way they did um the game. So, the game divided the fans and so did the show. So, um it is what it is. The showrunners did have the choice to change things if they wanted to and they didn't. though they did change some things which I which was really cool uh in that uh scene where the where they were all attacking the fort and the dogs were let out and all that. That was that was

7:02 cool. That that was really cool. Really liked that. But um they should have changed the more if they wanted more people to stay. They should have saved his death for the end of the show. That would have been the smarter thing cuz it would have got people to watch all the way through. But whatever. Showrunner la show showrunner Craig Mason has expressed a similar attitude nothing noting he expected fura over season 2's uh deviations from the game and that pleasing social media was never part of the plan. It's all a part of the plan. While there's truth in that idea that art can be built by committee, there's also a reality. franchises live

7:47 or die by whether audiences want to keep showing up. Hollywood history is littered with examples of creatives telling fans not to watch if they don't like the product. Rarely does it end well. Brie Larson's Captain Marvel press tour, Ryan Johnson's The Last Jedi commentary, and even more recently, Marvel and Disney projects have suffered long-term reputational damage when cast and creators choose confrontation over bridge building. Very true. When you tell customers not to watch, they often take you at your word. In a streaming era where attention is scarce and competition is fierce,

8:36 suggesting fans walk away is the opposite of what a struggling franchise needs. Yeah, I think three is going to do horribly. Ramsay com Ramsay's comment comes as The Last of Us season 3 looms with HBO still positioning the series as a prestige drama. Yet, as many outlets have pointed out, season 2 was already divisive. Declining viewership numbers and controversy over story choices have left the fan base fractured. I'm going to be a dad. 10 million subscribers. Woo!