'The Last of Us' series: Release date, cast, plot and more about the upcoming HBO show

In 2013, Sony's PlayStation exclusive, The Last of Us, was deemed one of the most critically acclaimed games. The game won 48 awards in total and is adored by PlayStation fans.

The Last of Us games were highly praised for their emotionally-packed storytelling and narrative. The immense popularity and success of the games made HBO consider turning it into a live-action series. In November 2020, Naughty Dog, Sony Pictures Television and HBO announced their plans for a live-action series starring Pedro Pascal (of The Mandalorian fame) as Joel Miller.

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The show has been created by Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin, who is accompanied by the game's director Neil Druckmann (as a producer), and Chernobyl and Game of Thrones producer Carolyn Strauss.

Warning: This article contains Spoilers for The Last of Us (2013) and The Last of Us Part II (2020) games.

When will 'The Last of Us' HBO series release?

In July, Gabriel Luna (of Agents of Shield fame), who plays Joel's brother Tommy, shared a behind-the-scenes snap with Pedro Pascal and others. This suggests that the shooting began around July.

Later, Collider reported that the series will finish shooting by June 2022.

This means The Last of Us could be released by late 2022.

Premise of The Last of Us HBO series

The main story of the show is confirmed to be roughly the same as the game. The Last of Us takes place 20 years after a zombie outbreak across the earth originating from a fungus. Joel Miller, who has faced the outbreak since the beginning and lost his daughter in the initial pandemic, is the main protagonist. He is a smuggler tasked with smuggling a 14-year-old girl named Ellie from an oppressive military quarantine zone in Boston.

Like the game, the show's first season is expected to showcase their journey back to the Fireflies in Salt Lake City, where Joel would have to bring Ellie to Marlene (Ellie's guardian). However, Joel later learns that Ellie is immune to the zombie outbreak.

Spoilers Ahead:

In Salt Lake City, Joel finds out that Ellie has to die in order to develop a cure. Unable to comply with this, Joel kills several Fireflies members and escapes with Ellie.

Number of episodes

In July, the show's writer Craig Mazin came on a Scriptnotes podcast and revealed that the series would have 10 episodes in the first season. Furthermore, it has been rumored that HBO has allotted the series a hefty production budget of over $10 million per episode, which translates to $100 million+ for the first season.

It has also been alleged that lead actor Pedro Pascal would be getting $6 million per episode.

How will the series and game differ?

In March, producer Neil Druckmann told IGN,

"Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can't wait for people to see them."

This is justified as the game has almost 15 hours of primary playable content, while the show will have a runtime of one hour per episode, which brings the total to 10 hours.

Main cast for The Last of Us HBO series

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey (Images via Frazer Harrison/Getty Images and Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)

Pedro Pascal as Joel
Bella Ramsey as Ellie
Murray Bartlett as Frank
Merle Dandridge as Marlene
Gabriel Luna as Tommy
Con O'Neill as Bill
Jeffrey Pierce as Perry
Anna Torv as Tess
Nico Parker as Sarah

There has been extreme hype over this upcoming The Last of Us series ever since its announcement. However, fans are worried over Joel's fate in the forthcoming season if the series does not deviate from the game's original plot.

Spoiler:

The concern is regarding Joel's "needless" death in The Last of Us Part II (2020), for which a legion of fans criticized Naughty Dog.