The Last of Us star teases “one of the best hours of television I’ve ever read”

HBO is not letting up. They recently wrapped on the first season of their Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, are about to premiere the final season of fantasy show His Dark Materials, and in January will debut an adaptation of The Last of Us, the beloved zombie video game from Naughty Dog.

I know, I know: another zombie, show, how original. But The Last of Us has always distinguished itself from other zombie apocalypse stories by way of its careful, emotive writing. Yes, there are lots of zombies running around, but the real story is the relationship between Joel, a hardened survivor played by Pedro Pascal; and Ellie, a young girl played by Bella Ramsey who may be immune to the airborne fungus turning the rest of the humanity into monsters. Joel must escort Ellie across a ravaged United States in order to get her to a group of scientists who can use her immunity to help stop the spread of the zombie plague, and in so doing will rediscover his own lost humanity.

Along the way, they’ll run into several memorable characters, including Bill (Nick Offerman), a survivalist who has managed to stay alive by himself in his small town despite zombie infestation. He used to stay there with his partner Frank, but in the game, Frank is dead by the time Joel and Ellie reach Bill.

HBO’s The Last of Us show will spend time with a character who didn’t actually appear in the game

The show will be throwing us a curveball, because Frank will be played by The White Lotus star Murray Bartlett; it’s unclear right now if we’ll see Frank in a flashback or if they’re changing the story or what.

What we do know is that Bartlett is very psyched about this series, and sung its praises to Collider. “As far as I know, in my research, because I went into a deep dive on what the game is, it’s incredibly cinematic,” he said. “The characters are really fantastic. It’s an amazing, complicated story with really deep themes in it. It’s an amazing creation. They’ve really beautifully adapted all of those elements into this show. It’s an incredible team.”

"The scripts that I had to work with, one particular script is one of the best hours of television I’ve ever read. It’s beautiful. It’s beautifully written. There are these zombie creatures in it, but it’s tender and it’s human. I think it’s gonna be really special. I haven’t seen any of it yet, but I’m really proud of the work we did and I think it could be really, really wonderful. It will be really wonderful."

The Last of Us is produced by Neil Druckmann, who worked on the games, and Craig Mazin, who is behind the HBO series Chernobyl. This is some high-octane talent. Add on that signature HBO coat of polish and this show could be something very special. “There’s an amazing cast,” Bartlett continued. “They’ve put a lot of love and resources behind it. I think it’s gonna be a fantastic show.”

The Last of Us premieres on HBO and HBO Max on January 15.

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