The Last of Us HBO

The Last of Us TV show on HBO is full of Easter eggs and nods to fans of the franchise — everything from weapons to dialogue pulled straight out of the ...

The page it opens to is easy to miss, but may be a nod to the franchise — The Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road.” This could be reference to the long, winding road that will take Ellie and Joel across the United States, or maybe the long and winding road it’s been since a The Last of Us But there’s one scene in particular that stood out for its similarities to an iconic level in The Last of Us Part 1: Chapter 3, “The Outskirts.” Crawling through tunnels and debris, the trio has to dodge spotlights and flashlights from the military guarding the quarantine zone wall — spots in the game where it’s essential to play the game as stealthily as possible. Merle Dandridge plays Marlene in The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us Part 2, taking the role on a third time for the HBO adaptation. Our best guess is that this is a nod to the video game — in The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us Part 2, you get max three hits on your everyday melee weapons. Joel asks if Ellie is a “bigwig’s daughter” or something, and Ellie responds that it’s “something like that.” These few lines are pulled straight from the game, but in those scenes it’s Tess talking to Ellie when they’re escaping the zone. The phrase is graffiti on walls throughout Boston (and likely elsewhere), a symbol and motto for the revolutionary group the Fireflies — the people who are fighting the oppressive military in the country’s quarantine zones. For dedicated fans of the game, the appeal of The Last of Us is not necessarily in being [surprised by twists and turns of the story](https://www.polygon.com/e/23314304); rather, it’s to [see the franchise in a new light](https://www.polygon.com/e/23316913), picking out the little details that point back to the original media. The heavy wrench looks to be of forearm’s length and probably quite handy while they’re escaping the city, but Joel drops it right away. This scene sets up the horrors of the infected in a different way, giving some more context to show viewers what’s going on. There’s no real significance for the band in the game, other than a few posters, but the back of the T-shirt does foreshadow how the game plays out: Each tour stop is another location that Ellie and Joel will visit throughout their journey. In the video game, you control Sarah, and she’s looking through her house in the dark. It’s all in the third-person view, with the camera in the back seat.

Series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and star Pedro Pascal discuss the changes made to a game-changing sequence in the live-action drama.

They are tasked by the Fireflies rebel group to smuggle Ellie out of the city to their allies on the outside. Parker was placed in the back with cinematographer Ksenia Sereda, who strapped in with her camera and a helmet to capture the action. Druckmann recalls toying with a number of story ideas for how to get Joel out of the house to line up these solo scenes with Sarah to the events of the game. Commanded by his superiors over the walkie to kill the suspected infected, the armed guard opens fire, causing Joel and Sarah to tumble down the hill. A gunshot cuts through the air to stop a rampaging infected host from chowing down on Joel and Sarah. Pascal confirms the sequence that follows in the car was just as crazy to film as it looked on screen. Sarah wakes up for the second time on the night of Joel's birthday and finds herself alone. Sarah ignores it as the bell rings and she heads to a watch repairman to get Joel's gift ready with cash she stole from his drawer. After making a birthday breakfast of scrambled eggs for Joel (played on the show by The Mandalorian's The series begins with a day in the life of Sarah Miller, played by actress Nico Parker. Joel, a single father, is on the phone in the background. "Well, we can't do that in a television show," Mazin notes, "but what we can do is give you more moments with her alone."

The zombie apocalypse depicted in the popular video game series and newly adapted HBO series “The Last of Us” derives from a mutation to a type of fungus ...

The zombie apocalypse depicted in the popular video game series and newly adapted HBO series “The Last of Us” derives from a mutation to a type of fungus called cordyceps. This should probably come as no surprise, though: Unlike in the games and show, cordyceps, as we currently know it, will not turn you into a zombie. Cordyceps is real, and some

The opening scene shows two epidemiologists speaking on a talk show in 1968, speculating about significant viral threats to human existence. One says viruses ...

We wanted to give us much reality as we could because the realer that is, the more we connect to the characters that are in that space playing around.” The game had spores in the air and people had to wear gas masks, and we decided, early on, that we didn’t want to do that for the show,” he said. Druckmann added: “With the more recently infected, we had a lot of conversation about what that vector could look like because there are certain things from the game that we took away. Mazin continued that the audience is more knowledgeable about pandemics these days than they were when the game first came out in 2013. This scene is pivotal to explaining how the outbreak in The Last of Us begins. The disease that wipes out most of humanity in The Last of Us is a fungus—a mutated microorganism known as cordyceps, which actually does exist in real life, but it can’t infect humans. “There’s a fungus that infects insects, it gets inside an ant, travels through its circulatory system to the ant’s brain and then floods it with hallucinogens, thus bending the ant’s mind to its will. The airborne spores that required gas masks to navigate are gone and instead, we have tendrils (which, by the way, will make your skin crawl from a visual perspective), potentially given the real-life COVID pandemic wherein a mask helps slows transmission. “So, if that happens—” the talk show host begins. [devour its host](https://stylecaster.com/watch-the-walking-dead-online-free/) from within replacing, the ant’s flesh with its own, but it doesn’t let its victim die. How did The Last of Us outbreak start? But in the end, we always win,” he explains, adding that fungus will be humanity’s undoing “in the most dire terms” and alludes to how it might begin.

While The Last of Us is deservingly praised for its human drama, the cordyceps help the franchise to also stand above other horror zombie productions.

In The Last of Us, human neurology is also altered to make the host more aggressive and more likely to bite and spread the fungi to new victims. While The Last of Us is deservingly praised for its human drama, the cordyceps help the franchise to also stand above other horror productions focused on zombies. But in the case of cordyceps, the result is terrifying. Since the planet's average temperature is rising, mutations that turn species more resistant to heat become more adapted to the environment. All the stories you heard about zombie ants eaten from the inside out by fungi are true, and the cordyceps are to blame. But there’s another reason why The Last of Us is such an exciting show.

HBO's super-sized series premiere saw Joel (Pedro Pascal) navigate trauma and find new purpose in Ellie (Bella Ramsey), plus some video-game callbacks.

People don’t love that sequence because it’s two minutes of CGI forming different shapes; they love it because it’s two minutes of CGI telling a story of sorts by establishing the geography of the series as a whole and of individual episodes, changing periodically to introduce new spots on the map or prepare us to return to little-visited places like The Pyke. While the idea of the spores rising into something resembling a city — i.e., a metaphor for how the world as we know it has been consumed by the mushrooms — is clever, it’s still ultimately just a bunch of shapes, and not interesting enough to go on for as long as it does. And we discover that Marlene needs Ellie to get to her other Fireflies out west because Ellie is somehow immune to the infection. Ellie is not as in command of the situation as Tess was, but we also quickly see that she is not afraid of being shackled to a wall by armed people who won’t explain why they want her. Then purpose arrives in the form of Ellie, a girl close in age to Sarah who needs passage out of the city. He is emotionally closed-off and efficiently brutal, and when his new charge Ellie is threatened by a soldier late in the episode, he has a PTSD flashback to Sarah’s death and turns absolutely savage in the way he beats on this man. [zombies](https://www.rollingstone.com/t/zombies/), though we do get the disgusting imagery of a dead body absorbed into a wall of fungus when Joel and the others traverse an underground tunnel late in the hour. (We are introduced to her surrounded by armed men after a beating, yet it is clear that she is in command of the room the entire time, and would likely have found a way out of her predicament even if a conveniently-timed Firefly bomb hadn’t given her an escape route.) He is existing rather than living, haunted by the loss of his daughter even more than the loss of everything else he knew, with few goals beyond getting through the next day. Before we get to that violent escape from Boston, we first have to establish the state of America 20 years after the zombie uprising. So I’ll be discussing this episode, and all the ones to come, solely on the basis of how it works as a television show. But before that, we have to watch civilization fall in the way it tends to in so many dystopian shows and movies. Instead, creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are using those scenes to establish emotional stakes for Joel, and to make us deeply feel at least some of the pain he experiences when Sarah is shot by a panicked soldier on the night the world is wrecked.

The first episode of The Last of Us on HBO establishes a new world for the video game series, with plenty of differences and similarities.

The two make a plan to find Robert and confront him in order to find out where the battery ended up. In the chaos, the guard points his rifle at Ellie, and Joel jumps in between them, unarmed, to try and talk him down. - There’s a clear shot of dust in the light in the first scene in Joel’s apartment. Fortunately, as it turns out, the guard is the one Joel provided pills to earlier in the episode. Tess escapes to see that a FEDRA vehicle has been bombed, and that a sniper is on a nearby rooftop, firing on FEDRA soldiers. A guard notices the child, and rushes to assist as he collapses. As Joel tries to explain that neither of them are infected, the soldier radios for instructions on how to handle the situation. Just as the monster is about to pounce, it’s shot by a soldier, who then keeps Joel and Sarah at gunpoint. As Sarah gets outside, Joel and Tommy careen onto the scene in their pickup truck, and Joel kills the infected woman with a wrench, without hesitation. Joel is painted as being forgetful and preoccupied with his work and his need to keep his family afloat, though has a clear lighthearted side, and is very open to playfully jesting with Sarah and Tommy. Post title credits, the episode then jumps ahead to a suburb of Texas in 2003, where single father Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), a building contractor, and his teenage daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), are starting their day. One of the guests begins to talk about the very real concept of parasitic fungi – organisms that infect, kill, and control the body of their host to further spread their existence.

The original game follows Joel and Ellie as they journey across a virus-ridden post-apocalyptic America, facing many dangers including the perilous infected – ...

Here’s everything you need to know about the outbreak in The Last of Us. You can find out more about the show What if infections limited to ants could affect humans, with the fungus growing into our brains, filling them with hallucinogens, and devouring its host – all while keeping them alive to spread to “billions of puppets”, without any conceivable treatment? This is exactly the same as the game. Those infected with Cordyceps may notice symptoms such as coughing, slurred speech, muscle spasms, and mood changes. [What caused the outbreak in The Last of Us?](/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-hbo-what-caused-the-outbreak-cordyceps-explained-2024146/#what-caused-the-outbreak) [Stages of infection](/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-hbo-what-caused-the-outbreak-cordyceps-explained-2024146/#stages-of-infection) [What is the outbreak based on?](/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-hbo-what-caused-the-outbreak-cordyceps-explained-2024146/#what-is-the-outbreak-based-on) [When did the outbreak happen?](/tv-movies/the-last-of-us-hbo-what-caused-the-outbreak-cordyceps-explained-2024146/#what-did-the-outbreak-happen)

Though based on the 2013 video game series by PlayStation Studio, Naughty Dog, it's immediately clear that the show, written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil ...

The two make a plan to find Robert and confront him in order to find out where the battery ended up. In the chaos, the guard points his rifle at Ellie, and Joel jumps in between them, unarmed, to try and talk him down. - There’s a clear shot of dust in the light in the first scene in Joel’s apartment. Fortunately, as it turns out, the guard is the one Joel provided pills to earlier in the episode. Tess escapes to see that a FEDRA vehicle has been bombed, and that a sniper is on a nearby rooftop, firing on FEDRA soldiers. A guard notices the child, and rushes to assist as he collapses. As Joel tries to explain that neither of them are infected, the soldier radios for instructions on how to handle the situation. Just as the monster is about to pounce, it’s shot by a soldier, who then keeps Joel and Sarah at gunpoint. As Sarah gets outside, Joel and Tommy careen onto the scene in their pickup truck, and Joel kills the infected woman with a wrench, without hesitation. Joel is painted as being forgetful and preoccupied with his work and his need to keep his family afloat, though has a clear lighthearted side, and is very open to playfully jesting with Sarah and Tommy. Post title credits, the episode then jumps ahead to a suburb of Texas in 2003, where single father Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), a building contractor, and his teenage daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), are starting their day. One of the guests begins to talk about the very real concept of parasitic fungi – organisms that infect, kill, and control the body of their host to further spread their existence.

We zip forward to 2003, ten years before the opening of the game, and get a really nice sequence with Joel (Pedro Pascal), his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and ...

In this case, the writers and producers had to condense a 15-hour game into a 10-hour season of television. It doesn’t always work out (many movie adaptations of video games aren’t exactly great), but things can’t stay always precisely the same as they were in the source. Deviating from Joel and Ellie’s story to tell another one in this universe — something that wouldn’t be possible for the game to do — is an exciting change. I enjoyed the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which is nothing like any of the games, and I’m interested to see how the Gran Turismo film shakes out, given that it’s about someone who’s very skilled at those games becoming a real-life racing driver. In the same way, a movie that adapted any of the core Mario games exactly would quickly fall flat. We get to see some of what Sarah’s day-to-day existence is like in the hours before the outbreak occurs. Changing how the infection spreads from spores to fungus, for instance, means that the actors don’t have to wear masks in some scenes. They hit the story beats they needed to while changing things up enough to surprise fans of the game and, at least in some places, make the narrative work better in another medium. Things that work in a novel may not in a film, and retelling a game beat-for-beat in a TV show doesn’t make a lot of sense. The cold open is a scene from a ‘60s talk show, which is immediately a new twist. Thanks in part to some of the different paths it takes, HBO’s adaptation of the 2013 game is off to a stellar start. Even when it’s a game that’s as cinematic as The Last of Us.

Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann was working on it to make sure it was faithful to the game. Chernobyl's Craig Mazin was writing it. It was on HBO. And when early ...

Fanboys made a big deal out of a quote where she said she was told not to play the game, implying that would make her performance unfaithful. While everyone remembers the breakout performance she gave in a few scenes as young Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, she was a somewhat unknown quantity here. Hell, even one of the same actresses shows up to play the same role she had a decade ago (Marlene). HBO, even going through massive cutbacks in the David Zaslav era, has clearly unleashed the floodgates to give The Last of Us whatever budget it needs. Even getting my hopes way, way up ahead of the premiere of The Last of Us last night, even counting the series as one of my favorites in video game history, it actually exceeded my expectations. Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann was working on it to make sure it was faithful to the game.

HBO's The Last of Us is based on the beloved video game of the same name, but fans can expect some changes. Learn the differences between the show and the ...

We spend ample time with Sarah, allowing Joel’s future interactions with Ellie to contrast more sharply, and we also get to know the neighbors who first introduce us to the game’s pandemic and see a bit of pre-pandemic life. We see Tess’s tussle with Robert, the arms dealer who ripped off her and Joel, and his henchmen, which is merely alluded to at the start of the game. Lastly, Joel and Tess’s pursuit of Robert and subsequent meeting with Marlene and Ellie is altered a bit. In the show, the pandemic breaks out in 2003, with most of the show taking place in 2023. We see more of the work Joel and Tess do, with Joel establishing contact with a FEDRA soldier to swap goods. Nobody would have to do much thinking to draw a connection between characters masking up to prevent infection and our own reality, but don’t we want to have to do at least a little bit of thinking? The show opens in 1968, with two infectious disease experts discussing with a TV journalist the possibility of global pandemics. While HBO’s The Last of Us is true to the game, those who have played it can look forward to differences, if not surprises. [COVID-19 pandemic](https://www.menshealth.com/health/a41713931/covid-and-flu-how-to-tell-the-difference/), the first of them warns of increased air travel enabling a mutated supervirus to spread easily, and if the contradiction of the other expert dismissing just viral illness to warn instead about fungi seems like cheap irony, it turns around. Since its announcement, however, [HBO’s The Last of Us](https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a42445349/the-last-of-us-season-1-episode-1-recap/) has promised something more. It’s The Last of Us.” [adaptations of video games](https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/g36026663/video-game-movies/) to other media often leave both old and new audiences wanting.

In its first 25 minutes, the HBO adaptation of 'The Last of Us' achieves an energy the game longed to emulate.

For those with a strong attachment to the original work, the last decade was essentially building up to this moment, and what transpires in the TV adaptation is something close to a (The remake with more modern tech, released last fall, is only somewhat better.) Since this is a game, it’s also a sequence with a fail state. It’s really something to see a prestige TV show literally translate a scene from a game that was, in its own way, already emulating a prestige TV show. The plane crash, for example, is an invention for the show; in the video game, Sarah and Joel are knocked out when another car slams into theirs. The HBO remake of the outbreak sequence is striking in how it fully realizes what the original work was simulating. Playing the game, you can feel The Last of Us strain to use its elemental tools to achieve the kind of cinematic storytelling it’s going for, even as it’s ultimately successful. The camera assumes a view from the back seat, mimicking Sarah’s perspective as the family tries to get out of Dodge. (Though one could possibly argue Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men, which does a ton of world-building through background elements that the camera often glides by, came quite close.) The very first character you control is Sarah, whom you guide through a splendid sequence that evokes the feeling of being a child alone at home. John Hannah plays the more portentous of the duo, laying out the mechanics of what will eventually drive the apocalypse in this universe: mind-controlling fungus, previously a phenomenon contained to the insect world, pushed by climate change to evolve such that it makes the jump into human beings. As someone long familiar with the source material, the choice is exciting: the HBO version places a premium on leaving room to breathe. This wasn’t necessarily the case in the source material. However, back in 2013, the game was still doing its best with the tools it had within the context of its medium.

It's been a long old wait, but HBO's live-action TV adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us is finally here - and, f…

And HBO has now offered a small tease of the events still to come in its Eurogamer's The Last of Us super-fan Victoria Kennedy will be sharing her thoughts on each episode as the series progresses. HBO's The Last of Us teases horrors to come in new The Weeks Ahead trailer

Based on Naughty Dog's hit PlayStation series, the adaptation stars Pedro Pascal as smuggler Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, a 14-year-old girl who might hold ...

The Last of Us [The Last of Us Part 2](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/games/the-last-of-us-part-2/), which debuted for [PS4](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps4/) in 2020, and that [Naughty Dog may have plans for a third entry in the series](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/last-of-us-director-on-a-potential-part-3-i-think-theres-more-story-to-tell/). The Weeks Ahead Trailer [PS3](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/platforms/playstation/ps3/) generation in 2013, and its downloadable expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind, which arrived the following year. [which has been well received by critics](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-last-of-us-tv-shows-first-reviews-are-widely-positive/), is reportedly overall highly faithful to The Last of Us, although it’s said to include “some radical changes to the game’s story that will shock and perhaps challenge fans”, including one involving the character Bill, [who is played by Nick Offerman](https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/the-last-of-us-hbo-series-adds-nick-offerman-as-bill/). The Last of Us is produced and written by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Naughty Dog co-president

Following the series premiere on Sunday, the premium cabler released a trailer titled "The Weeks Ahead," and there's a lot to look forward to. Joel (Pedro ...

Catch new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. Another pivotal moment of the trailer finds Joel, Ellie, and Tess trying to defeat some Clickers, and it looks like a thrilling bunch of scenes that will showcase the parameters of the villains in this narrative. Thankfully, it looks like Tess warms more to Ellie in the coming weeks as she is in the trailer telling Ellie that while she may be immune from the infection, she isn't immune from the infected tearing her apart.

Where and how can you watch The Last of Us episode 2? What can you expect from the second episode of season 1? Find out right here.

Here’s how you can watch The Last of Us episode 2 on HBO and HBO Max and what to expect. As of now, the times and dates will remain the same throughout, with new episodes releasing every Sunday until the season finale. As wild as episode 1 was, the rest of the season will likely be crazier.

"The Last of Us" showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann explained the opening scene on the official HBO podcast.

"One of the things that the opening does is place everything also within the context of a longer time span," said Mazin. This is part of the natural cycle of the planet. "I thought it was important to say to people, we are not a show that's asking you to share some of your own personal horror about the viral pandemic with us. "There was also a chance to address the elephant in the global room, which is we all just went through a viral pandemic," said Mazin. Starting the series this way has the simultaneous effect of keeping fans of the game on their toes and giving important context to newcomers to The Last of Us. [The Dick Cavett Show](https://www.youtube.com/@TheDickCavettShow), which is the scene that ends up in the series. It's a scene that's not present [in the game](https://mashable.com/article/the-last-of-us-hbo-game-vs-show); the cause of the Infected is explained through the game's opening credits news coverage montage and through various dialogue in cutscenes. The idea of this foreboding interview came from director Mazin, who spoke about the scene on Speaking with host and original Joel Miller voice actor Troy Baker, Mazin unpacked the cold open and how he had pitched two ideas for it to his fellow showrunner, The Last of Us creator Druckmann. Schoenheiss (played by Christopher Heyerdahl), who explains that fungal infection of this kind, though real, is not present in humans. And in the [HBO](https://mashable.com/category/hbo) adaptation, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann kick off the anticipated series with an extra introduction to the game's context to really hammer this mushroom foe home alongside the idea that disasters don't just happen overnight, somebody always sees them coming. Neuman (played by John Hannah) speaks on an interview show about the prospect of a viral pandemic.

MoistCr1tikal lauded the premiere of HBO's new show The Last of Us, saying it should be the model for adapting gaming IP.

He often compared The Last of Us to the widely-panned Halo adaptation to highlight the differences in how to handle a major gaming IP. However, he was pleased with the changes. Only one episode has aired as of this writing but those who have watched are already hailing the show as the next massive franchise.

HBO's 'The Last of Us' is a faithful adaptation of the hit video game, but there are some key differences. Here's how they compare. Travis Clark.

Ellie explains to Joel and Ellie that her bite is weeks old. Like in the game, Joel is now in Boston, doing what he can to survive with his partner Tess, played by Anna Torv. She promises to give Joel and Tess their supplies back, including a truck for them to escape, if they can smuggle a girl named Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, out of the quarantine zone. The first episode of the HBO series then jumps to 2003 — and the watch scene — next. The player wanders the house as Sarah and can look at things like newspapers that foreshadow some sort of outbreak. The biggest difference from the beginning of the game and the HBO series' first episode is at the very beginning.

The final scene in The Last of Us' first episode draws closer ties between Ellie and Sarah and their relationship with Joel.

It’s been known, as it has been said in many interviews by primarily Mazin and Druckmann, that the show will expand and alter the story in certain ways, and it’s clear from this scene alone that those changes are also going to be happening early on between This makes the scene even more intense, as we see Joel try and calm him down and barter with him in hopes of him letting them go. [the FEDRA soldier](https://collider.com/the-last-of-us-fedra-explained/) that Joel sells drugs to earlier in the episode. One of the more important additions is the connection that’s drawn between the FEDRA soldier that points the gun at Ellie and the one that ends up shooting Sarah. Most importantly is that this comparison can’t be drawn when talking about the original game, as there’s never really meant to be a line that could be drawn between that moment and Sarah’s death. While some of the changes in the premiere were more overt, there are a handful that many can point to as thoughtful expansions on the already great narrative.

HBO Max Shares 'The Last of Us' Episode One Featurette: Offering a behind-the-scenes look at the adaptation's inaugural episode.

Watch the featurette above. Episode one of The Last of Us was met with critical and fan acclaim, with many praising the pilot for staying true to the source material and for the acting chops of those involved. [HBO Max](https://hypebeast.com/tags/hbo-max) is giving fans behind-the-scenes access to the first episode of its [The Last of Us](https://hypebeast.com/tags/the-last-of-us) series adaptation.

The nine-episode season -- in which Joel is played by "Narcos" and "Mandalorian" star Pedro Pascal and "Game of Thrones" actress Bella Ramsey portrays Ellie -- ...

On a list drawn up by Box Office Mojo, only five films in this genre have surpassed $400 million in earnings. Many more video game adaptations are in the pipeline, including a new "Super Mario Bros" film, a third installment in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise and a "Gran Turismo" movie, as well as a Netflix animated series based on "Tomb Raider." In the case of "The Last of Us," he explained, "the post-apocalyptic story taps into a popular genre even outside of gaming, and HBO has a long-standing track record succeeding with dramatic series." The series has already won a slew of positive reviews, with a score of 97 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and is on track to be the streaming world's first success of 2023, 10 years after the "The Last of Us" game first debuted on PlayStation. The nine-episode season -- in which Joel is played by "Narcos" and "Mandalorian" star Pedro Pascal and "Game of Thrones" actress Bella Ramsey portrays Ellie -- is set in a post-apocalyptic America ruled by a military dictatorship. But the dystopian, zombie-filled HBO series "The Last of Us," premiering in the United States on Sunday and the following day elsewhere, could be about to break the curse.

The Last Of Us drew a healthy number for HBO on Sunday night. The videogame adaptation, starring Pedro Pascal, drew 4.7M viewers across linear and HBO Max.

“Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could,” said Mazin and Druckmann. We look forward to fans around the world enjoying the rest of the season.” The Last Of Us is written and executive produced by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. It is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television along with PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal journey as they both must traverse the US and depend on each other for survival. That series went on to average 19.5M viewers per episode in the U.S.

HBO's series adaptation of PlayStation's "The Last of Us" premiered Sunday, drawing HBO's second-biggest debut of the last 13 years.

Sony Pictures Television produces alongside PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint and “Last of Us” video game studio Naughty Dog. “Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could,” executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann added. We look forward to fans around the world enjoying the rest of the season.”

The 4.7 million viewers encompasses the on-air premiere on HBO, replays later in the night and streaming on HBO Max. A more detailed breakdown of the audience ...

A more detailed breakdown of the audience will be available when Nielsen releases final ratings for Sunday; on House of the Dragon’s premiere night, Other than the Game of Thrones prequel, the last HBO show with a larger opening-night audience for its debut was Boardwalk Empire (4.81 million) in 2010 — several years before HBO had any serious streaming presence. We look forward to fans around the world enjoying the rest of the season.” Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey star. That figure trails only House of the Dragon’s nearly [more than half](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/house-of-the-dragon-streaming-rankings-aug-15-21-2022-1235221779/) of the cross-platform audience came via streaming. [fungal pandemic](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/the-last-of-us-can-mushrooms-fungus-infect-humans-1235299195/) has killed much of humanity and turned others into monsters. [Subscribe Sign Up](https://cloud.email.hollywoodreporter.com/signup/) [10 million](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/house-of-the-dragon-tv-ratings-sunday-aug-21-2022-1235203367/) among HBO series premieres in the past decade-plus. The 4.7 million viewers encompasses the on-air premiere on HBO, replays later in the night and streaming on HBO Max. [Share this article on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/&title=TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere&sdk=joey&display=popup&ref=plugin&src=share_button&app_id=1153511048447777) [Share this article on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/&text=TV%20Ratings%3A%20%E2%80%98The%20Last%20of%20Us%E2%80%99%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere&via=thr) [Share this article on Email](mailto:?subject=thr%20:%20TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere&body=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/%20-%20TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere) [Show additional share options](#) [Share this article on Print]() [Share this article on Comment](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/#respond) [Share this article on Whatsapp](whatsapp://send?text=TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere%20-%20https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/) [Share this article on Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=1&url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/&title=TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere&summary&source=thr) [Share this article on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/&title=TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere) [Share this article on Pinit](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/&description=TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere) [Share this article on Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/widgets/share/tool/preview?shareSource=legacy&canonicalUrl&url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/tv-ratings-sunday-jan-15-2023-1235300975/&posttype=link&title=TV%20Ratings:%20‘The%20Last%20of%20Us’%20Scares%20Up%20Big%20Premiere) [HBO](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/hbo/)’s [The Last of Us](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/the-last-of-us/) got off to a strong start with viewers. “We are thrilled to see fans of the series and game alike experience this iconic story in a new way, and we extend our gratitude to them for helping to make it a success,” said Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content.

The Last of Us is a smash hit in every way possible on HBO, scoring sky-high reviews from both professional critics and hard-to-please gamer fans.

I’ve seen some hopes among fans that Halo writers will take lessons from The Last of Us to heart and stick closer to the source material in the future. And yet this is a bad example in this case, given that Halo fans can point to the 2012 live action miniseries Forward Unto Dawn as a successful way to tell a Halo story with an even smaller budget, mainly because it was well-written and stayed true to what we knew about the Halo universe. Given that Halo season 1 ended with Cortana effectively remote-piloting Master Chief’s corpse, I do not have a lot of faith that’s going to happen in season 2. One consistent bit of praise the show is getting is the fact that it’s sticking incredibly close to the source material, which at times means shot-for-shot remakes of scenes from the games, exact lines from the script, and in one case, even the same actor reprising a decade-old role. The one good thing about the Halo show so far is probably Cortana, and surprise, it’s because they used the original actress from the games. Then there’s the show’s odd obsession with nudity, including seeing Master Chief himself naked at one point.

HBO's adaptation of the popular video game franchise on Sunday night premiered to 4.7 million total viewers (across linear and HBO Max platforms in the U.S.), ...

“Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could. (And in this age of streaming/HBO Max, the Sunday night viewership for an HBO series typically represents just 20 to 40 percent of the total gross audience per episode.) We look forward to fans around the world enjoying the rest of the season.”

The series debuted with HBO's second largest premiere viewership since 2010, after "House of the Dragon" last year.

“The Last of Us” also managed to nearly double the Season 2 premiere numbers for “Euphoria” when it debuted last year. Incidentally, “Game of Thrones” eventually featured “The Last of Us'” lead actors — Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay — in its sprawling cast, so maybe being “Thrones” adjacent is the magic touch an HBO series needs to score big with its premiere numbers. For comparison, “The Last of Us'” premiere viewership is just slightly higher than that of “House of the Dragon’s” parent series “Game of Thrones,” which debuted to 4.2 million viewers in 2011 before steadily exploding in viewership over the course of its run. “We are overjoyed to see how many fans, both old and new, have welcomed ‘The Last of Us’ into their homes and their hearts.” The Zendaya-led teen drama is currently HBO’s second-largest hit after “House of the Dragon,” averaging 19.5 million viewers per episode in the U.S. 4.7 million viewers tuned in to watch the video game adaptation’s premiere episode during its first day of availability, [HBO](https://www.indiewire.com/t/hbo/) announced Monday.

But House of the Dragon really has conquered all - it premiered with just under 10 million viewers for its debut episode last year, making it HBO's biggest ever ...

Here in the UK, you can find the series' first episode available to view via Now TV, ahead of episode two's launch next Monday morning from 2am. Yet to tune in? HBO's The Last of Us earned the network its second-biggest premiere since 2010, behind only last year's debut for House of the Dragon.

The hour-and-a-half series premiere was watched by 4.7 million viewers across linear TV and HBO Max on Sunday, the network announced on Tuesday. HBO touted the ...

There are two installments of the game thus far, with "Part II" released in 2020. The "Game of Thrones" prequel's debut Fans and critics also seem to love the HBO adaptation. "Boardwalk Empire" remains HBO's overall second-biggest premiere of all time, with 4.8 million viewers in 2010. "The Last of Us" is based on HBO's "The Last of Us" is off to a hot start.

Based on Nielsen and first party data, Sunday's series premiere was watched by 4.7 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms. This is the second- ...

In their own words: “Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could. The debut viewership for The Last of Us is also double that of the second season premiere of [Euphoria](https://collider.com/tag/euphoria/), which ranks as one of HBO's most popular offerings. You can watch the trailer here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates. [House of the Dragon](https://collider.com/tag/house-of-the-dragon/). Co-creators and executive producers Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (who wrote both games), said that they are overjoyed at the reception. We look forward to fans around the world enjoying the rest of the season.”

"Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could," said Mazin and Druckmann. "We are ...

But now, after centuries of servitude, Renfield is finally ready to see if there’s a life away from The Prince of Darkness. "Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could," said Mazin and Druckmann. The series takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed, following Joel and Ellie on a heartbreaking journey across the U.S. If only he can figure out how to leave him. He's forced to procure his master’s prey and do his bidding, no matter how debased. [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2023/01/the-last-of-us-premiere-draws-4-7m-viewers-1235224124/), Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's The Last of Us adaptation has garnered the second-largest debut for HBO, behind House of the Dragon, since Boardwalk Empire launched on the network to 4.81M viewers back in 2010.

The series, based on a critically acclaimed video game, reached 4.7 million viewers on Sunday in the U.S. alone.

In real life, cordyceps are “not prepared to invade, establish within and transmit spores [from a human body](https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/01/16/the-last-of-us-zombie-infection-is-real-heres-what-scientists-say-about-the-threat-to-humans/?sh=27eb52cc2a6e),” João Araújo, New York Botanical Garden’s assistant curator and researcher in mycology, assured Forbes. [cordyceps brain infection](https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/01/16/the-last-of-us-zombie-infection-is-real-heres-what-scientists-say-about-the-threat-to-humans/?sh=27eb52cc2a6e), which turns humans into zombies after invading their brain, was inspired by real-life fungi that can hijack their hosts, experts say. House Of The Dragon’s premiere remains the The series follows Pascal’s character escorting a teenage girl played by Ramsey across a post-apocalyptic U.S. and globally. based on Nielsen and first-party data, HBO noted.

The Chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content, Casey Bloys said of the news “We are thrilled to see fans of the series and game alike experience this iconic ...

But regardless of what HBO decides, I can’t wait to savor each and every episode of this season for as long as I can. [Variety](https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/the-last-of-us-video-game-adaptation-gameplay-craig-mazin-neil-druckmann-1235489584/) that “If people show up and they watch [this season], then yeah, we’re ready to do that.” Based on these numbers, I would say that people are absolutely showing up to watch The Last of Us. Series creators and Executive Producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann also shared their gratitude, saying “Our focus was simply to make the best possible adaptation of this beloved story for as big an audience as we could. The Chairman and CEO of HBO and HBO Max Content, Casey Bloys said of the news “We are thrilled to see fans of the series and game alike experience this iconic story in a new way, and we extend our gratitude to them for helping to make it a success. Yes, the video game that the series is based on has a large and passionate fanbase and the show has a strong leading man in Pedro Pascal, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it was going to pull in enough viewers for it to be considered a “success” by HBO and HBO Max’s new leadership. The press release also says that Sunday night viewing typically accounts for only 20-40% of total viewership for an HBO series, meaning that The Last of Us premiere will likely amass even more viewers as the week goes on.

The series premiere garnered 4.7 million U.S. viewers, making it HBO's second-largest debut since “Boardwalk Empire” premiered over a decade ago with 4.81 ...

Content Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the Naughty Dog game and HBO adaptation, The Last of Us.After three games and two failed movie ...

Despite not acting as a major character, Joel's brother Tommy is there for some pivotal moments in both the game and the show. But for all those wondering if the dog dies in the show, the answer is unknown, due to never seeing Mercy again after Joel, Sarah and Tommy leave town. In the games, it's Ellie who reveals Marlene and her mother were friends, making fans wonder why the show decided to change Ellie's backstory. While there have been two full-length games and a pivotal expansion over the last decade, to some, The Last of Us is a brand new story. Although the rest of the series is set to follow Joel's journey with Ellie, it begs the question is Parker will ever return as Sarah in possible flashbacks, or even as an illusion. The 85-minute series premiere took place on January 15, 2023 and while it stayed true to the video game, it also left fans and viewers alike with plenty of questions.

See when and where to stream HBO's hit video-game-adapted series starring Pedro Pascal.

When she’s not writing she loves hanging out with her cat, reading outdoors and scrolling the depths of TikTok. But the adaptation is also groundbreaking in its own right, marking both HBO's first-ever series based around a video game as well as Canada's largest production in television history. Now, HBO has adapted the game's post-apocalyptic universe into a 9-episode series of the same name—and it's taking on an exciting life of its own.

The Last of Us has premiered on HBO Max, bringing about the latest live-action video game adaptation. This show sees Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey taking on ...

That’s the full release schedule for The Last of Us on HBO Max. Here are the dates and times that you can expect to watch each episode of The Last of Us on HBO Max this year. The Last of Us has a weekly release cadence on HBO Max.