Expectations grow and what better opportunity than The Last of Us Day to release the first official trailer? The day, which is celebrated today 26 September, was in fact embellished with the new trailer of the highly anticipated TV series based on the Naughty Dog videogame.
Produced by HBO, the series will resume Joel and Ellie’s journey into a post-apocalyptic world.
The Last of Us trailer and plot
In just under two minutes, the teaser shows us the two protagonists Joel and Ellie – respectively played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey – grappling with the atrocities of a world invaded by a mysterious parasite. With a frenetic editing and a country song in the background, the trailer reveals just one line from the series: “Save who you can save”, namely “Save who you can”.
The plot of the TV series will obviously resume the events of video games, 20 years after the beginning of a zombie epidemic on Earth. These creatures, called Infected, were attacked by a parasite born from the mutation of the fungus Cordyceps, which now infects and kills humans as well as animals. The protagonists Joel ed Ellieas strangers, they will find themselves having to establish a strong bond, learning to trust each other. Joel is a smuggler who knew the world before the apocalypse and who during the early stages of the catastrophe lost his daughter while Ellie – which has only 14 years – was born in the midst of the spread of the parasite.
When does the TV series come out? And who will be in the cast?
In the cast numerous well-known faces and new discoveries. The protagonist Joe Miller, for example, will be played by Pedro Pascal (Game Of Thrones, Narcos), while Ellie will instead be played by the young woman Bella Ramsey, which HBO viewers already know as Lyanna Mormont in Game Of Thrones. A report from TheGamer revealed that Pascal wasn’t actually HBO’s first choice for the lead role. The studio would have indeed wanted Matthew McConaughey for the part, which, however, would have rejected the role.
Joel’s brother Tommy will be played by Gabriel Luna (Agents of SHIELD), while Ellie’s guardian, Marlene, will be played by Merle Dandridge (who was both the voice actress and the model for the same character in the original 2013 game). Nick Offerman he will play Bill, an old friend of Joel’s who appeared in the first game who will help Joel and Ellie on their journey. Murray Bartlett he was instead cast as Frank, Bill’s partner briefly mentioned in the first game. The role of Tess, Joel’s smuggling partner, goes to the Australian actress Anna Torv (Fringe, Mindhunter). Other confirmed actors are Nico Parker, Lamar Johnson e Storm Reid. In the cast, in different roles, there will also be Troy Baker e Ashley Johnsonwho played the protagonists Joel and Ellie in video games.
The series bears the signature of Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) e Neil Druckman (co-president of Naughty Dog). The release is scheduled for 2023 on HBO Max and will be split into 9 episodes. In Italy it will arrive on SKY and streaming on Now.
In the meantime, The Last of Us fans can, from this month, play the first chapter of the saga also on PlayStation 5.