The Last Of Us Trailer: Here's What Lies Ahead On Joel And Ellie's Path
Now that the series premiere for "The Last of Us" has casually ripped out our hearts and thoroughly stomped on them (an experience fans of the original video game have gone through before), it's time to look ahead to what awaits Joel, Tess, and Ellie on their journey across a post-apocalyptic United States overrun by fungus-infected monsters, armed totalitarian forces, enslavers, and all sorts of other dangers, most of them human in nature.
"The Last of Us" video game co-director Neil Druckmann and "Chernobyl" creator Craig Mazin's HBO series adaptation of Naughty Dog's beloved hit didn't pull any punches in its first episode, starting with a heartbreaking prologue that depicted the outbreak of the Cordyceps fungal virus in 2003 from the perspective of Joel (Pedro Pascal, back in rugged dad form and riveting as ever) and his loved ones. 20 years later, a twist of fate results in Joel and his equally hardened partner Tess (Anna Torv) being hired by the Firefly rebel group to smuggle a defiant, f-bomb-dropping teenager named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to their Massachusetts safe house. By the end of the episode, however, Joel and Tess had stumbled upon the truth about Ellie and what makes her so important, as well as a target for those on both sides of the ongoing war between the Federal Disaster Response Agency and the Fireflies.
Even with a whole ton of exposition to get through and sky-high expectations built in, "The Last of Us" got off to a compelling start and looks to only get better in the weeks that lie ahead. HBO gave viewers a taste of what's to come with a trailer that aired right after the episode, and is now available to watch online. Check it out below.
Watch the Last of Us: The Weeks Ahead trailer
The "Weeks Ahead" trailer for "The Last of Us" offers a sneak peek at Joel, Ellie, and Tess being stalked by the infected, aka Clickers, in a tense scene that brings to mind the "Raptors in the Kitchen" sequence from "Jurassic Park," in addition to passing by partly collapsed skyscrapers and other crumbling, haunting remnants of human society. There's also a glimpse of Storm Reid ("Euphoria") as Riley, Ellie's best friend at the military boarding school she attended when she was younger, as part of what's clearly a flashback to Ellie's past and the dark events that led to her current state. Melanie Lynskey ("Yellowjackets") likewise shows up as Kathleen, the leader of a revolution in Kansas City and a seemingly original character created for the HBO show (via Polygon), as does Gabriel Luna as Joel's brother Tommy, who was MIA when Joel and the gang set out on their trek.
Perhaps most intriguing of all is the early look we get at Nick Offerman ("Parks and Recreation") and Murray Bartlett ("The White Lotus") as Bill and Frank, the mysterious survivalists who were mentioned but left unseen in the first episode, having worked out a code for communicating with Joel using Billboard hits from past decades. In her review of the show's first season, /Film's Valerie Ettenhofer heralded the standalone episode centered on Bill and Frank as a "crushingly beautiful" story that re-imagines a subplot from the original video game as "a pure embodiment of the game's most poignant themes." Who else is ready to get hurt again?
New episodes of "The Last of Us" air Sundays on HBO.