| Theme Music Composer: | Gustavo Santaolalla |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 9 |
| Location: | Canada |
| Runtime: | 43–81 minutes |
| Network: | HBO |
The Last of Us is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for HBO. Based on the video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog, the series is set twenty years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures and causes the collapse of society. The first season, based on the 2013 game, follows Joel (Pedro Pascal), a smuggler tasked with escorting the immune teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic United States. The second season is expected to adapt the 2020 sequel, partly following Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
Guest stars include Nico Parker as Joel's daughter Sarah, Merle Dandridge as resistance leader Marlene, Anna Torv as Joel's partner Tess, Gabriel Luna as Joel's brother Tommy, Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Montreal Woodard as brothers Henry and Sam, and Melanie Lynskey and Jeffrey Pierce as resistance leader Kathleen and her second-in-command Perry. The second season is set to introduce Isabela Merced as Ellie's romantic interest Dina and Young Mazino as Dina's ex Jesse.
The first season was filmed in Alberta from July 2021 to June 2022, while the second season was filmed in British Columbia from February to August 2024. It is the first HBO series based on a video game, and is a joint production by Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Naughty Dog, the Mighty Mint, and Word Games. Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the games, assisted Mazin with scriptwriting for the first season's nine episodes, joined by Halley Gross, who co-wrote the second game, and Bo Shim for the second season's seven episodes. The score was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, who composed for the games, and David Fleming.
The Last of Us premiered on January 15, 2023. It received acclaim from critics, who praised the performances, writing, production design, and score; several called it the best adaptation of a video game. It won several awards, including eight Primetime Emmy Awards out of 24 nominations. Across linear channels and HBO Max, the series premiere was watched by 4.7 million viewers on the first day—the second-biggest for HBO since 2010—and almost 40 million within two months; by May, the series averaged almost 32million viewers per episode. The second season is set to premiere in 2025.
See main article: ''The Last of Us'' season 1.
See main article: ''The Last of Us'' season 2.
A film adaptation of Naughty Dog's 2013 video game The Last of Us was announced in 2014, to be written by original writer and creative director Neil Druckmann; it entered development hell by 2016, and the rights had relinquished by 2019, when Druckmann met Craig Mazin. They agreed The Last of Us required a television series' length and pacing. HBO announced the series was in planning stages in March 2020, written by Mazin and Druckmann, also serving as executive producers with Carolyn Strauss and Evan Wells. It is PlayStation Productions's first show, announced as a joint production with Sony Pictures Television and Naughty Dog. HBO greenlit the series in November, adding executive producers Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan and production company Word Games, followed by production company the Mighty Mint in January 2021 and executive producer Rose Lam in February. Produced by Greg Spence and Cecil O'Connor, the first season's ten-episode count was reduced to nine during production.
On January 27, 2023, less than two weeks after the premiere, HBO renewed the series for a second season. While the first season covers the events of the first game and its downloadable expansion (2014), the second is set to immediately cover the sequel, The Last of Us Part II (2020), to avoid filler. PartII is expected to span multiple seasons; Mazin confirmed plans for a "significantly larger" third season if the second is successful, and suspected the story may require a fourth. The series' narrative is not set to overtake the games. Jacqueline Lesko was named an executive producer in March 2023, and O'Connor by February 2024. In January 2024, Kate Herron, Nina Lopez-Corrado, Mark Mylod, and Stephen Williams were announced as directors for the second season alongside Druckmann, Hoar, and Mazin. In June, Mazin and Druckmann revealed the season would consist of seven episodes.
The Last of Us is believed to be the largest television production in Canadian history, generating for Alberta and creating 1,490 jobs. According to Canadian artists union IATSE 212, the production led to a 30 percent increase in union membership and employment. The first season's budget of over —more than $10 million per episode—exceeded that of each of Game of Throness first five seasons. The budget is set to increase for the second season.
Casting took place virtually through Zoom due to the pandemic. Casting director Victoria Thomas wanted to honor the game without being limited by it. On February 10, 2021, Pascal and Ramsey were cast as Joel and Ellie. The producers sought actors who could embody Joel and Ellie individually and imitate their relationship. Though both were featured on HBO's Game of Thrones, Pascal and Ramsey had not met before the filming of The Last of Us began but found they had instant chemistry, which developed over production.
Mazin and Thomas sought high-profile guest stars; Thomas said many of the actors "don't usually do one-episode guest spots". Guest roles were announced throughout 2021: Luna in April, Dandridge in May, Parker in June, Pierce, Bartlett, and Torv in July, and Offerman in December. This was followed by Reid in January 2022, Baker and Ashley Johnson in June, Lamar Johnson, Woodard, Greene, and Miles in August Lynskey in September, Shepherd in December, and Wesley in January 2023.
Casting for the second season was put on hold in May 2023 due to the Writers Guild of America strike; actors had been auditioning with scenes from The Last of Us Part II due to an absence of scripts. The production team wanted to start the second season's casting with Abby. Dever, Mazino, and Merced's casting was announced in January 2024, followed by O'Hara's in February, Ramirez, Barer, Gabrielle, and Lord's in March, and Wright's in May.
A post-apocalyptic drama and thriller, the series is written by Mazin and Druckmann; Mazin wrote all first-season episodes except the premiere and finale, which he co-wrote with Druckmann, and the seventh episode, written by Druckmann. A writers' room was established for the second season, with Mazin and Druckmann joined by Halley Gross, who co-wrote Part II with Druckmann, and Bo Shim, a new writer. Druckmann was convinced Mazin was the ideal creative partner for the series after witnessing his passion for the game's story. The writers avoided making "a zombie show", acknowledging the infected creatures were a vessel through which characters are pressured to make interesting decisions and reveal their true selves. Content cut from the game was added to the show. Druckmann said some scripts borrow dialogue directly from the game, while others deviate; some of the game's action-heavy sequences were changed to focus on character drama at the encouragement of HBO. Mazin compared the process to adapting a novel, with identical emotional beats despite different narrative events.
Druckmann felt the most important element of adapting the game was to "keep the soul", particularly character relationships, whereas gameplay and action sequences were of minimal importance. He was open to changing aspects of the games but wanted a strong reason, ensuring he and Mazin considered impacts on later narrative events. The game's outbreak takes place in 2013 with its post-apocalyptic narrative in 2033; this was changed to 2003 and 2023 as the writers felt the events taking place simultaneously with broadcast was more interesting and did not fundamentally change the story. They added the outbreak's origins to ground the narrative; following COVID-19, they recognized audiences are more knowledgeable about viral pandemics. The writers removed spores—the vector through which infection is spread in the games—and replaced it with tendrils forming a unified network, inspired by the idea of mycelium. The writers found the series an opportunity to delve into backstories of characters who the game otherwise ignored, wanting to better understand their motivations.
The first season filmed for 200 days, with around 18–19 days per episode, amounting to 2–3 pages of script per day. Filming began in Calgary, Alberta, on July 12, 2021. It moved to High River and Fort Macleod in July, and Calgary in August. Around was spent for a four-day shoot in Downtown Edmonton in October. Filming moved to Calgary in October and November, and Canmore in November. Production took place in Okotoks and Waterton Lakes National Park in February 2022, Calgary from March to May, Olds in May and June, and High River in June. Production concluded on June 11, followed by additional photography in Kansas City in October.
The second season was filmed in British Columbia under the working title Mega Sword. Delayed by the writers' and actors' strikes, production began on February 12, 2024, with filming taking place in Kamloops, Mission, Fort Langley, and Langley. Production returned to Calgary in March, including in Exshaw and along Highway 1A, and moved to Britannia Beach in April, June, and July, Downtown Eastside and Nanaimo in May, Chinatown, Downtown Vancouver, and New Westminster in July, and Gastown in August. Production concluded on August 21.
See main article: Music of ''The Last of Us'' (TV series).
Gustavo Santaolalla and David Fleming composed the score for the television series; Santaolalla, who worked on the video games, wrote its opening theme. He said Latino viewers "will recognize touches" of his music, and drew on his experiences in film and television, having composed the themes and some tracks for Jane the Virgin (2014–2019) and Making a Murderer (2015–2018). He primarily recrafted his previous work instead of creating new music, focusing on elements he found interesting. Fleming's work was inspired by real-world sounds within a decayed civilization. A 66-track soundtrack album for the series was released digitally on February 27.
The first episode features the song "Never Let Me Down Again" by Depeche Mode due to its blend of upbeat sounds and dark lyrics; it returned in the sixth episode, performed by Mazin's daughter Jessica, to demonstrate Ellie feeling let down by Joel. The third episode uses "Long, Long Time" by Linda Ronstadt, which exhibits themes of unfulfilled love and how time heals wounds, echoing Bill and Frank's relationship; streams increased significantly following the episode's broadcast. The fourth episode's title references the lyrics of "Alone and Forsaken" by Hank Williams. The seventh episode features "All or None" by Pearl Jam to represent Ellie's loneliness and uncomfortability, reuses Etta James's version of "I Got You Babe" from Left Behind as its romantic lyrics hidden by joyous music mirrored Ellie and Riley's feelings, and uses A-ha's "Take On Me" to reflect their feelings towards each other and illustrate Ellie's journey.
Five art directors and hundreds of technicians worked on the first season, and the game's artists provided feedback on costumes and sets. Costume designer Cynthia Ann Summers found the series more difficult than fantasy or period pieces as the costumes had to be integral to the story without standing out. Production designer John Paino referenced the game but focused on Naughty Dog's own references. He created an image collage which included a photograph of reassembled chairs, which Mazin considered the show's mandate: "the built world is unbuilt and rebuilt".
Barrie and Sarah Gower, with whom Mazin had worked on Chernobyl, created the prosthetics for the infected. Mazin wanted the clickers to resemble the in-game design through prosthetics; he felt using visual effects would have lessened their impact. Choreographer Terry Notary wanted the creatures' movements to imitate each other, akin to schools of fish. Misty Lee and Phillip Kovats, who had worked on the games, returned to voice the clickers for the series.
The first season was edited by Timothy A. Good and Emily Mendez; Mark Hartzell edited the second episode, and Cindy Mollo edited the eighth. Mendez worked as Good's assistant editor on the third episode, then as his co-editor for the fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth. Good and Mendez are set to edit the second season. Sixteen visual effects teams worked on the series, supervised by Alex Wang. The first season had over 3,000 visual effects shots; most episodes had around 250. The 650-person team at DNEG worked on 535 shots for the season over 18 months, primarily focusing on environmental effects; field trips were conducted to gather resources, and the team regularly referenced the video games. The visual effects teams consulted with Naughty Dog's concept artists when creating the infected, and used timelapse videos of Cordyceps growth as animation references. Design studio Elastic created the title sequence to demonstrate the "unrelenting nature" of the fungus.
The first season premiered in the United States on January 15, 2023. It was broadcast on HBO in the United States, and is available to stream in 4K resolution on HBO Max. The first episode received its red carpet world premiere in Westwood, Los Angeles, on January 9, followed by theater screenings in Budapest and Sydney on January 11, and New York City on January 12. Behind-the-scenes videos, titled Inside the Episode, were released on HBO Max and YouTube following each episode, and Naughty Dog released Building The Last of Us, featuring interviews with the cast and crew of the series and games. The first season was released digitally and on DVD, Blu-ray, and Ultra HD Blu-ray in the United Kingdom on July 17, and in the United States on July 18, containing behind-the-scenes featurettes including a short film about adapting the game, a conversation with microbiology and parasitology experts, and the Inside the Episode series.
In December 2023, HBO announced the second season is set to premiere in 2025.
The Last of Uss marketing campaign utilised "breadcrumb content": small teases to maintain engagement. Emily Giannusa, HBO vice president of marketing, planned promotional material to prove faithfulness to the source but discovered it was unnecessary as fans created it themselves. The marketing team conducted social listening from 2020 to identify non-gaming influencers interested in the series. HBO shared the first image of Pascal and Ramsey in costume in September 2021. The first footage was revealed in a HBO Max trailer during the premiere of House of the Dragon in August 2022. The first teaser trailer was released in September, receiving over 17 million views in less than 24 hours and over 57 million organic views in 72 hours, the most-watched promotional video in HBO's history.
The first full trailer was released at CCXP in December, marking the promotional campaign "kicking into high gear". Pascal, Ramsey, Baker, and Ashley Johnson presented at The Game Awards 2022 on December 8. HBO announced Baker would host a companion podcast alongside the series, featuring Mazin and Druckmann. A season trailer was released after the airing of the first episode on January 15. Pascal, Ramsey, Bartlett, and Offerman appeared on several talk shows to promote the series, and Pascal and Ramsey appeared on covers of The Hollywood Reporter and Wired. On January 27, the first episode was released for free on HBO Max in the United States, and on Sky's YouTube channel in the United Kingdom.
HBO shared the first images of Pascal and Ramsey in the second season on May 15, 2024, and the first footage from the season on August 4.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the first season of The Last of Us has an approval rating of 96% based on 484 reviews, with an average rating of 8.75 out of 10. Metacritic calculated a weighted average of 84 out of 100 based on 43 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Several reviewers considered it the best adaptation of a video game; GameSpots Mark Delaney called it "the beginning of a new era" for the genre. Reviewers praised the differences from the game's narrative, and some believed the scenes lifted directly from the game were among the weakest and led to issues with pacing. Critics overwhelmingly considered the third episode the season's best, and some named it among the greatest television episodes in recent years; The Hollywood Reporters Daniel Fienberg felt it elevated the series to a new level, and Empires John Nugent called it "one of the finest hours of television in recent memory". Several critics lauded the production design for matching the game.
The cast's performances in the first season received widespread acclaim, with critics singling out Pascal and Ramsey's chemistry. Some considered Pascal's performance his career-best, citing his ability to portray nuance and rare vulnerability, and several found Ramsey gave the show's breakout performance for their balance of comedy and emotion. Guest performances were highly praised, including Parker for her likeability, Torv for being sophisticated and heartbreaking, and Lynskey for juxtaposing humanity and viciousness. Critics enjoyed the chemistry between Pascal and Luna, and Ramsey and Reid. Offerman and Bartlett's performances were described by Complexs William Goodman as "career-best". IGNs Simon Cardy lauded Lamar Johnson's emotional performance in his final scene, and Total Films Bradley Russell felt the naivety of Woodard's role intensified the narrative. The A.V. Clubs David Cote called Shepherd's performance "masterful in its wry, understated charm".
The premiere episode had 4.7 million viewers in the United States on its first night of availability, including linear viewers and streams on HBO Max, making it the second-largest debut for HBO since 2010, behind House of the Dragon. The total viewing figure increased to almost 40 million within two months. In Latin America, the series premiere was the biggest HBO Max debut ever. The video games increased their sales following the premiere. The second episode had 5.7 million viewers on its first night, an increase of 22 percent from the previous week, the largest second-week audience growth for an original HBO drama series in the network's history. The first two episodes averaged 21.3 million viewers by January 31, the first five almost 30 million by March 6, and the first six 30.4 million by March 12, the highest figure for an HBO series since Game of Throness eighth season, surpassing House of the Dragons ten-episode average. With over three million viewers in the United Kingdom, the ninth episode became Sky's most-viewed finale for an American debut series, topping House of the Dragons first-season finale. The series broke HBO's subscription video on demand viewer ratings in Europe, and became the most-watched show on HBO Max in Europe and Latin America. By May, the series averaged almost 32 million viewers per episode in the United States.
The Last of Us is the first live-action video game adaptation to receive major awards consideration. It was nominated for 24 Primetime Emmy Awards, with a leading eight wins at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, including for Offerman and Reid. From major guilds, it won two awards at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (including Best Actor for Pascal) and one at the Directors Guild of America Awards and Writers Guild of America Awards, and received two nominations at the Producers Guild of America Awards. It was nominated for three Critics' Choice Television Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and five TCA Awards, and led the Astra Creative Arts TV Awards with six nominations. In genre awards, the series was nominated for five Saturn Awards. It led the MTV Movie & TV Awards with three wins, including Best Show, and was nominated for six awards at the People's Choice Awards, including Show of the Year. The series earned the biannual Seal of Authentic Representation from the Ruderman Family Foundation for Woodard's role as Sam.