HBO Mx has released a trailer revealing all the upcoming new releases that will be hitting the streaming company in the next few months. One of those that was featured in the trailer was the anticipated series The Last of Us.
This is the first trailer fans have seen since the series was announced and it is set for release in early 2023. Here are a few things you should know about the action-adventure series.
The Last of Us Video Game
The HBO Max series is based on the 2013 video game that was developed by Naughty Dog and was published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is played from a third-person perspective where the player is taken through a post-apocalyptic world. In this world, an outbreak of Cordyceps fungus attacks the US and when it attacks the human body, the host becomes aggressive and attacks others.
Twenty years after the world has succumbed to the infection, the main protagonist Joel is in Boston with his partner Tess, where they are both smugglers. They are given a job by a rebel militia to smuggle a teenage girl named Ellie into their hidden quarters. Both Tess and Joel take on the job before they realize that Ellie has actually been infected. It takes two days for someone who is infected to become an aggressive creature but according to the girl, she was first bitten two weeks prior.
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With this new revelation, Tess and Joel do all they can to keep the girl safe as her immunity can be a cure. Throughout the game, players are sent into a terrifying adventure where they not only have to survive the infected but the cold-blooded living as well.
A Gaming Success!
After the game’s launch, it received massive success. Metacritic gave the game a 95 out of 100 and it became the fifth-highest-rated Playstation 3 game.
At the end of the day, one detail is all that matters about The Last of Us: its single-player campaign. Naughty Dog has taken what it’s learnt from crafting the Uncharted franchise and spun that experience into a more down-to-earth, realistic adventure that shines with storytelling excellence, great combat, tense atmosphere and the highest quality in presentation, making The Last of Us one of Sony’s best exclusives for the PS3’s ever-growing library of great games.
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The game was eventually remastered to enhance the graphics and to critics, the remastered version was jaw-dropping. Many believed that visual flaws that were noticed in the original game were highly more advanced and it complimented the gameplay.
A sequel was eventually announced in 2014 with The Last of Us Part II and just like the first game, it was praised for its performances and gameplay.
From Cancelled Film to HBO Max Series
In 2014, Screen Gems Inc. was originally set to be the studio to distribute a film adaptation of the video game. Sam Raimi and writer/ Naughty Dog Co-President Neil Druckmann were set to produce the film but by 2016 the film was at a standstill. According to Druckmann, the film was canceled due to the studio focusing on big set pieces but he felt like it wouldn’t work well.
By March 2020, it was announced that a television adaptation was in the plans with HBO, and by November of that same year, the project was green-lit. Druckmann and Chernobyl screenwriter Craig Mazin are both writers and executive produce The Last of Us series. Others who are set to produce the series are Naughty Dog president Evan Wells, television producers Carolyn Strauss, and Rose Lam with Playstation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan.
The Mandalorian actor Pedro Pascal and Game of Thrones star, Bella Ramsey were both given the respective roles of Joel and Ellie. This isn’t the first time both actors have worked together on the same project as both have starred in the hit fantasy television series, Game of Thrones. Gabriel Luna (Tommy), Merle Dandridge (Marlene) and Nico Parker (Sarah) are set to make their appearance in the series. Over the course of the filming, set photos were released during the filming in Alberta, Canada which took place between summer 2021 and summer 2022. You can watch the HBO Max trailer below!
What do you guys think of The Last of Us teaser trailer? Are you excited about this series? Are you a fan of the video games? Out of everything that HBO Max showed us in the trailer, what are you most anticipated to see? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @The_Illuminerdi. Don’t forget to follow us on all of our socials!
Source: HBO Max
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