HBO's LAST OF US Series Looks OH MY GOD WTF IS THAT KILL IT WITH FIRE

Craig Mazin's adaptation of Naughty Dog's classic video game appears to be on the right track.

By Scott Wampler · @ScottWamplerRIP · August 22, 2022, 12:55 PM EDT
last-of-us-teaser

Last night, HBO rolled out the premiere episode of its latest Game of Thrones series, House of The Dragon, a show they've spent no small amount of time and money on promoting. It was a great, big deal, the sorta thing the network must've known would drag in millions of eyeballs, so of course they used the opportunity to give us a peek at a few of their other upcoming shows.

Among them: Craig Mazin's The Last of Us.

This is the very first footage we've seen from The Last of Us, and boy does it look like Mazin and company are knocking this one outta the park! For those of you who've never played the PlayStation game upon which the show is based, The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the terrifying Cordyceps virus (typically known for taking over the bodies of insects) has begun working its zombifying magic on the human populace. Once transformed, these creatures look like ... well, like that horrorshow stuck to the wall at the top of this page. They're freaky as all hell, and trust me: you absolutely do not want to encounter one of these things.

In the game (and, soon, in the HBO series), a grizzled survivor of the plague, Joel (Pedro Pascal), must transport a young girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), from Point A to Point Z while evading and/or killing the hideous monsters which have very nearly taken over the world. Along the way, there are revelations, adventure, scares, heartbreak, and a ridiculous amount of gory violence. Mazin, who recently created Chernobyl for the network, is an excellent fit for this material (as is his co-writer, Neil Druckmann, who directed the game), and all signs point to HBO having spared no expense on bringing his vision to life.

There's no word on when we'll get to see The Last of Us, exactly (the trailer simply promises that it'll be along next year), but we're chomping at the bit for it to get it in our eyeballs. Rest assured that we'll be keeping a close eye on this one as it works its way through production, and keeping you informed along the way.