The Last of Us Episode 1 Features Another HBO Star's Daughter

Spoilers follow for episode one, "When You're Lost in the Darkness."

The first episode of The Last of Us, HBO's much-anticipated adaptation of the popular video game series, has received praise from both critics and fans alike for staying faithful to the game's narrative in the early stages of the story, showing how the apocalyptic events first began to unfold before flashing forward to the main action.

In the prologue sequence, viewers are introduced to Sarah Miller, the daughter of series lead Joel (Pedro Pascal). In the original game, players initially explored the world of The Last of Us through Sarah's eyes as her father fought to get them to safety following the outbreak of the parasitic infection, and she remains a POV character in the first episode.

Then the same shocking twist from the game takes place on the show: Sarah is shot dead by a soldier who is under orders to contain the spread of the cordyceps spore. "We're so used to characters with plot armor," executive producer Craig Mazin told EW. "One of the great things that The Last of Us achieved was puncturing that plot armor in such a brutal and gorgeous and sad way."

While Sarah's screen-time in the show is limited to this one gut-punch of a series premiere, the impact of her death will continue to be felt as we follow Joel and Ellie (Game of Thrones' breakout star Bella Ramsey) on their journey.

Who plays Sarah in The Last of Us?

Bringing immediate emotional weight to a new series where many viewers will be unfamiliar with the source material is no short order, and the effectiveness of "When You're Lost in the Darkness" relies largely on the central performance of Nico Parker as Sarah.

And it turns out, acting is in her blood.

Parker comes from a movie-making family. Her father is filmmaker Ol Parker, who wrote and directed the romantic comedies Ticket to Paradise, Imagine Me & You and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Her mother is actress Thandiwe Newton, whose big-screen credits include Interview With the Vampire, Mission: Impossible 2, The Pursuit of Happyness, Crash, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and whose most memorable recent performance was as Maeve, the host-turned-revolutionary in HBO's adaptation of Westworld.

Parker has acted alongside her mother in the sci-fi thriller Reminiscence, and prior to The Last of Us was best known for appearing in Disney's live-action remake of Dumbo.