The second trailer for The Last of Us has been released, and it looks like Sky Atlantic and NOW’s new survival horror show, which is set to be released in January, is going to be one terrifying ride.
The trailer opens on Pedro Pascal’s face. He plays Joel, a hardened smuggler who has been given the job of taking teenager Ellie (who is played by Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic US (which means viewers can look forward to an abundance of clips of America’s gorgeous scenery, such as snow-covered vistas and winding roads through pine forests).
Ellie is immune to the Cordyceps brain infection which has wiped out most of the population, turning them into zombie-like mutants - and so she may be crucial to finding a cure.
In the trailer, there are scenes of long-abandoned streets where plants have grown over cars; flashbacks (we can assume) to Joel’s earlier life as he stands in a fire-lit scene with a young girl (who isn’t Ellie); then there is an amusing exchange while Ellie and Joel travel in a car together.
There is lots of hiding behind upturned vehicles, creeping through abandoned buildings as vigilante-looking humans are driven around on the back of trucks. In one dimly-lit scene, Joel, Ellie and Tess (Joel’s smuggler partner, played by Anna Torv) discuss their next steps.
Then it’s a collage of what’s to come: a clip of a crowd cheering, Ellie in an abandoned shopping centre, lots of people wielding guns, chase scenes, two people covered in blood hugging, someone holding a gun towards someone standing off camera. It’s all go.
The nine-episode series has been created by Craig Mazin, who is best known for the 2019 highly-acclaimed five-part miniseries Chernobyl, alongside Johan Renck who also worked with him on the Emmy-award-winning nuclear disaster show.
Joining Pascal (who has starred in Narcos and Game of Thrones), Ramsey (who most recently played Birdy in Lena Dunham’s Catherine Called Birdy) and Torv (who starred as Helen Norville in 2021’s The Newsreader) the cast will include Gabriel Luna (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Merle Dandridge (Truth Be Told), Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus), Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), Melanie Lynskey (Yellowjackets) and Storm Reid (Euphoria).
The new series is based on the 2013 blockbuster video game of the same name by game developer Naughty Dog, which also follows the developing relationship between Joel and Ellie as they travel across America.
The game was praised for having a strong female lead. In a rare move the relationship between the two main characters is not a romantic one, and Ellie, a lesbian, is seen pursuing female romantic interests in the game’s prequel release, the 2014’s The Last of Us: Left Behind, and in 2020’s The Last of Us Part II.
The New York Times said in its review of The Last of Us game, “Ellie is such an appealing and unusual video game character... that at one point I found myself rooting for Joel to die so that The Last of Us would become her game, a story about a lost young girl instead of another look inside the plight of her brooding, monosyllabic father figure.” Though later it concluded, “The Last of Us does at least present gamers with a likeable, sometimes powerful female character, even if she is for the most part unplayable.”
The Telegraph said: “It is a fabulous story, riffing on Cormac McCarthy and other bleak post-apocalyptic fiction but keeping its own identity through its characters.”
So it makes sense that the upcoming release of The Last of Us has been whipping up a lot of excitement: the second trailer, which was released on December 3, has already garnered 7.5 million views. Coming from an award-winning team, with a stellar cast and with a solid fanbase of the original game, there’s lots to look forward to.
