The Last of Us fans who played the second video game have been anticipating the casting of Lev for some time. The show so far has had a mixed track record when it comes to casting; I personally think casting queer actors Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced were great choices, but others disagree. The casting of Kaitlyn Dever was also controversial because she wasn’t as beefy as the character in the games. But this new decision seems to be universally understood to be a bad decision at worst, confusing at best.
Without giving away too many spoilers about the game and the character, Lev is canonically a trans boy, and that is an important and inextricable part of his character’s story and arc. And yet, The Last of Us has cast Kyriana Kratter, who is, by all accounts, a cis girl. This is a wild choice for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s 2026, and they had to know what the general reaction to this decision would be. Not to mention this character’s casting has been discussed since the first rumors of the television adaptation started, so there’s no way the creators and casting directors can even feign ignorance.
The queer community has been saying that trans roles need to go to trans actors for years, and it’s hard to not feel like we’ve been shouting into the void when things like this happen. Shows and movies won’t cast trans people in cis roles, but then also won’t cast them in trans roles, leaving trans actors few options besides writing and producing their own shows and movies, which is not something everyone has the resources or even desire to do. Also, if for some reason it’s true that literally ZERO Asian trans kids auditioned for the show (which I HIGHLY doubt, but let’s pretend), to me it seems more harmful to cast a cis girl as a trans boy than it would have been to cast a cis boy. Casting a cis girl telegraphs to me, personally, that the creators don’t understand trans people at all and sees the character of Lev as a girl who dresses like a boy and not a boy who was born in a female body.
I love this game and story a lot, and have really enjoyed the show despite some of the hiccups along the way, but this is a truly devastating blow. Obviously no hate to Kyriana Kratter; she’s just a kid who got cast in a role, and probably doesn’t have the full context of the character and his history at this point. But to the adult casting directors and creators and decision-makers, you should know better by now, and I find this extremely disappointing.
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Comments
I feel weird about the casting of the young trans boy character in the last of us. In principle I absolutely agree that trans actors should play trans characters. In practice I don’t think it’s fair to expect a trans child to out themselves in our current political environment in the name of appropriate casting – any trans actor who takes on that role would become a public figure in a world that is very hostile to trans people, and in a country where there’s a lot of legislation punishing the parents of trans kids. I don’t think it’s fair to limit casting to trans kids who are 1) able to be out and 2) from a family who are financially able to relocate to a safe state in order to avoid the threat of legal consequences for having an out trans child. Feels like it’s limiting trans roles to those with money to life as safely as is possible for a trans person right now.
That is a fair concern. In that case, I do still feel like casting a cis boy would have been the more respectful choice.
That’s what I assumed they would have done! I was like ah yeah bummer but also ig a boy is a boy but nope how disappointing
I understand where you’re coming from, but here’s another perspective. During TLOU timeline, Lev would have zero access to puberty blockers. He wouldn’t have access to testosterone. He would be a “woman” who shaved her head, bound her breasts, and dressed as a boy. That would be the limits of Lev. Are there blockers and hormones somewhere? Sure, but would they be safe? No. Since this was an open casting, they went with the best, and I think they made the correct decision for this character in the world they’re building. Going with a trans teen or cis boy would not work. We will probably end up agreeing to disagree on this subject.
Agreed to a certain extent…not exactly with the language used here as Lev would still be a boy, not a “woman” and still uses he/him pronouns, but the character in the game is AFAB and I think part of the point is that Lev is AFAB and “passes” without hormones and identifies as a boy and is for most of the game assumed to be cis. It would definitely have been meaningful to lots of people were the actor playing Lev to be non-binary, but I agree with the take that we can’t expect a trans kid to out themselves and put themselves on a chopping block like that. I think also we, in general, don’t need to identify sexuality/gender identities for kids nor ascribe them with such. There have been plenty of “cis” kid actors who play queer/trans roles and then later come out when they are adults and feel the desire/safety/sense of self to do so. I hear your point about hiring trans actors for trans (and non-trans) roles, but I do think this take in this context is an over-simplification.
for clarity: by “this take” being an over-simplification, i mean the original piece, not the comment.
Imo, signing up to be the most visible trans child in American media would be suicidal. Bella Ramsey was over 18 when they started on TLOU, with whatever money and protections a previously successful acting career affords you, and they STILL get tortured and harassed for their visibility. I love trans actors for trans roles, but Lev enters the story as a pre-teen, right? If somebody signed up their trans kid for this role, I’d say, you are endangering your son. And if they’d cast a cis boy, we’d have infinite thinkpieces about the erasure of visible transness and how trans people are expected to look exactly like cis people, etc etc. I think a better call would’ve been to age up the Lev character, but then that breaks the story themes. I don’t like their choice in casting a cis woman, but I understand why they made it.