‘The Last of Us’ First Teaser Released by HBO Max

HBO released the first teaser trailer for its highly-anticipated The Last Of Us series on Monday. The show is inspired by the critically acclaimed 2013 video game written by Neil Druckmann that is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The Mandalorian‘s Pedro Pascal stars as the game’s protagonist, Joel, while Game of Thrones star Bella Ramsey stars as Ellie. The Last of Us will premiere on HBO and HBO Max in 2023.

In the show and video game, Joel is a hardened survivor who travels across the U.S. decimated by the deadly cordyceps fungus. During his journey, he meets Ellie, a 14-year-old who is immune to the brain infection and could help humanity find a vaccine. Gabriel Luna (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) plays Joel’s younger brother Tommy and Anna Torv (Mindhunter) plays Joel’s smuggling partner Tess. Merle Dandridge reprises her video game role as Marlene, the leader of a resistance movement. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who voiced Joel and Ellie in the video games, have unknown roles in the show.

The trailer is set to Hank Williams’ ominous 1949 song “Alone and Forsaken,” which was referenced in the 2013 game. HBO also released the trailer on Monday because Sept. 26 is known as “Outbreak Day” among fans of The Last of Us. The trailer also included many iconic images from the games, notes Variety. Joel and Ellie are seen escaping a quarantine zone, and another scene shows Ellie on a merry-go-round with her childhood friend. Joel is also seen on the run with his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) during the early days of the pandemic.

Druckmann, who is also co-president of video game studio Naughty Dog, created the series with Craig Mazin, who won two Emmys for his work on the 2019 HBO limited series Chernobyl. Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Rose Lam are executive producers. The series was produced by Naughty Dog with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, The Might Mint, and Word Games. Kantemir Balagov, Jasmila Žbanić, Ali Abbasi, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, and Liza Johnson are the Season 1 directors.

Mazin and Druckmann are under a lot of pressure to make The Last of Us as good as it can be, especially since the original game series is one of the best-selling of all time. The franchise launched on PlayStation 3 in 2013 and quickly won dozens of awards and was followed by a sequel in 2020. In September, Naughty Dog released a remake of the original, The Last of Us Part I, for PlayStation 5. Dark Horse Comics also published a comic book series in 2013 that was written by Druckmann. Sony first attempted to make a film adaptation, but the project did not get far and the studio began developing The Last of Us as a TV series in 2020.