HBO's Full 'The Last of Us' Trailer Is Here with a Tense Pedro Pascal, Gun-Toting Nick Offerman and Monsters
The hit video game makes the leap to the small screen — and it's HBO's first big show of 2023.
If life in general hasn't been dystopian enough for you over the past few years, your next HBO obsession will be: The Last of Us, the television adaptation of the hit video game. Expect a tense future 20 years after modern civilisation has been destroyed, plus a seasoned survivor given a tough mission involving a teenager — and, amid that nightmarish quest, the kind of monsters no one wants to see.
If you've been a fan of the button-mashing favourite since it first arrived in 2013, then played the sequel in 2020, then you're already devoted to The Last of Us — and you know where HBO's version is going when it arrives in January, streaming in Australia via Binge and New Zealand via Neon. If you're new to the gaming franchise, get ready for what's certain to be 2023's first big show, complete with an eerie, creepy, action-packed mood, and a story that dives into a fraught post-apocalyptic version of the US.
That's been the vibe in both the initial teaser trailer from September and the just-dropped full trailer, both of which help tease out The Last of Us' premise. Pedro Pascal (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) plays Joel, who has been hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey, Catherine Called Birdy) out of an oppressive quarantine zone. There wouldn't be a game, let alone a television version, if that was an easy task, of course — and if the pair didn't need to weather quite the brutal journey.
So far, so intriguing — and while the sneak peeks so far do indeed conjure up memories of The Walking Dead, that just comes with the basic concept. The Naughty Dog-created PlayStation game wouldn't be the huge hit it's proven for almost a decade now if it simply cribbed from that TV show, obviously.
Fans of the game will note that Ashley Johnson (Blindspot) and Troy Baker (Young Justice), who voiced the Ellie and Joel in the source material, will indeed pop up in the HBO show. They'll clearly be playing different characters, however.
Also pivotal to HBO's adaptation: co-creator, executive producer, writer and director Craig Mazin, who already brought a hellscape to the US network (and to everyone's must-watch list) thanks to the haunting and horrifying Chernobyl. He teams up here with Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog, who also penned and directed The Last of Us games.
Alongside Pascal and Ramsey — and Johnson and Baker — the series also boasts Gabriel Luna (Terminator: Dark Fate) as Joel's younger brother and former soldier Tommy, Merle Dandridge (The Flight Attendant) as resistance leader Marlene and Aussie actor Anna Torv (Mindhunter) as smuggler Tess. And, Nico Parker (The Third Day) plays Joel's 14-year old daughter Sarah, Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) and Nick Offerman (The Resort) feature as isolated survivalists Frank and Bill, Storm Reid (Euphoria) pops up as Boston orphan Riley, Jeffrey Pierce (Castle Rock) plays quarantine-zone rebel Perry and Yellowjackets' Melanie Lynskey also guest stars.
Check out the full trailer for The Last of Us below:
The Last of Us will start streaming Down Under from Monday, January 16, 2023 — in Australia via Binge and New Zealand via Neon.
Images: Liane Hentscher/HBO.
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