Image: HBO
Here’s your first look at Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie.
We finally have our first look at HBO’s TV show adaptation of The Last of Us in motion. The series has been in the works at the television network for two years, but this is the first time we’ve seen actual footage courtesy of a new teaser that runs through all the content coming to HBO Max in 2022 and 2023.
If you only want to see the bit with The Last of Us, fast-forward to 1:39 in the video below - although it should autoplay from that point onwards anyway.
That makes for roughly 20 seconds of juicy footage, which is still the most we’ve gotten from the series besides a few pictures. The footage shows off a few characters fans might be familiar with: Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as Joel Miller, Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Ellie, Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) as Bill and Nico Parker (Dumbo) as Sarah.
The 20-second teaser is mostly a collection of scenes directly adapted from Naughty Dog’s 2013 horror-survival game of the same name. Ellie and Joel’s exchange, ending with him saying, “You have no idea what loss is,” is lifted straight from the game. We also see Joel carrying his daughter Sarah to safety on Outbreak Day, Ellie discovering her signature knife, and Bill potentially greeting Joel and Ellie on his doorstep.
We also see the briefest tease of the cordyceps fungus growing on a wall and releasing deadly spores, viable to infect survivors and turn them into vicious Clickers over time. Joel also teaches Ellie to shoot and interestingly, we see the duo trekking through snow in the winter - which doesn’t happen in the game. The series’ production team has hinted that we’ll see the story, “deviate greatly,” from the original game at times, so expect to see some new stuff in the show.
It looks pretty great! The show is reportedly operating on a massive budget, and that high production value shines through in this short teaser alone. Pedro Pascal seems like a good fit for the weary, emotionally cut-off Joel and Bella Ramsey is crushing it as Ellie already. The teaser points to a 2023 release window and The Last of Us’ game director Neil Druckmann, who also directed one of the series’ episodes, teased online that fans, “ain’t seen nothing yet.”
HBO’s The Last of Us is being developed by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Druckmann, with composer Gustavo Santaolalla returning to score the series. Developer Naughty Dog’s full-scale remake The Last of Us Part 1 will be released next week on September 2 for the PlayStation 5, giving fans a chance to relive Joel and Ellie’s harrowing road trip across America. A new multiplayer The Last of Us spin-off is also set to arrive in 2023.