The wait for the highly anticipated HBO series The Last of Us is almost over. On September 26th, HBO Max released the chilling teaser trailer for the new apocalyptic adventure, and on November 2nd, the streamer finally announced the show’s premiere date, followed by new character posters on November 30th.
Based on the award-winning bestselling video game series of the same name, The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, both Game of Thrones alumni (although their characters, Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Mormont, never interact). Pascal’s Joel is tasked with smuggling Ramsey’s Ellie across the post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested United States. In the trailer, they face many dangers – and not just zombies – like infected humans.
In conversation with GQ In April, Pascal revealed that while he loved the series, he wasn’t very good at playing the video game. “It’s so sad, I have no skills,” the actor said. “I’ve tried, you know. And then it was only a matter of minutes before I had to hand it over to my nephew. It really requires a certain kind of skill and I don’t have that.”
While Pascal admired the game, he knew he didn’t want to imitate it perfectly either. “I found Joel so impressive – I thought the whole thing was a visually stunning experience,” he said. “And then I worried that I wanted to imitate too much, which I think might be right in certain circumstances and then a mistake in others. So I just wanted to create a healthy distance and get more hands off [show co-writer] Craig Mazin and [game writer and show co-writer] Neil Druckman.”
The Last of Us was filmed in Calgary, Alberta in 2021 and HBO plans to release it in early 2023. Read on to find out everything we know about The Last of Us, including the trailer and cast.