HBO Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys has given another update on when we can expect to see their eagerly anticipated adaptation of Naughty Dog’s blockbuster videogame The Last of Us, revealing that Joel and Ellie’s bleak journey through apocalyptic hardship will arrive in “early 2023”.
The brief reveal was disclosed during a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter in which Bloys was giving a rundown on HBO’s current schedule, which included everything from Succession season 4 to the Game of Thrones Jon Snow spin-off, and was asked “When should we expect The Last of Us to arrive?” To which he simply replied “early 2023”.
It’s not a lot to go on, but at least it’s enough for fans to cling onto, hopefully reassuring them that HBO are taking their time to ensure that they get this adaptation of the beloved and utterly brilliant game spot on, rather than rushing something to meet a deadline.
Although the game features a devastating present-day prologue, The Last of Us is set 20 years after modern civilization as we know it has been destroyed and centres on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for a deadly pandemic. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the teenage girl out of a quarantine zone, but what starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heart-breaking journey as they traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Written by Chernobyl‘s Craig Mazin and creator Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones), with Gabriel Luna set to play Joel’s brother, Tommy, Merle Dandridge reprising her video game role as Marlene, Nico Parker (The Third Day) as Joel’s daughter, Sarah, Jeffrey Pierce (Bosch) as Perry, a rebel in a quarantine zone, Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) as Frank, Anna Torv (Mindhunter) as Tess, and Storm Reid (Euphoria) as Riley. It was also announced that actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who play Joel and Ellie in the game, will be joining the series as different characters.
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