Released in 2013, The Last of Us, developed by Naughty Dog and Sony Interactive Entertainment, is a post-apocalyptic video game that follows the story of a mutated cordyceps fungus that has taken over the world and turned the infected into monsters. After it is discovered that a young girl named Ellie is immune to the fungus, a smuggler named Joel is presented with the dangerous task of going on a cross-country mission outside of the safe quarantine zones to deliver her to Firefly Headquarters and hopefully develop a cure and save the rest of humanity. On their journey, they must endure the Infected as well as other human survivors. Thanks to its thrilling storyline and lovable characters, it instantly became a classic in the gaming community, garnering millions of fans and even getting a sequel, The Last of Us Part II, in 2020. Due to this profound popularity, it was announced that a television series would be made based on the game available on HBO and streamed on HBOMax.
HBO premiered the first episode of The Last of Us on January 15th, 2023 and the public absolutely loved it. With a 97% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the network ended up surpassing all expectations old fans of the game had for the series as well as receiving many new fans. Furthermore, there could not have been better casting. Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) take on the roles of Joel and Ellie beautifully and work amazingly together.
Within the last decade, film and television adaptations of video games have not been received well due to directors straying far away from their source material. However, this is not the case with The Last of Us. While also taking creative liberty to expand on the world and characters that the game had constructed, Craig Mazin co-directed with Neil Druckmann, the writer of the original game, to ensure the show stayed very true to the source material, which played a huge part in the show’s success.
It ended up doing so well, a second season was confirmed through an Instagram post after only two episodes had been released!
With a notable cast, incredible CGI, and beautiful cinematography, The Last of Us has elements that can appeal to all viewers. Even those who have no experience with the original game and its plot would thoroughly enjoy the new show. Episodes are released on a weekly basis, so if you have not started it yet, I definitely recommend you get caught up and tune in to HBO on Sunday nights at 9 pm to experience the remaining episodes of the first season!