Get your first look at HBO’s The Last Of Us series

HBO’s The Last Of Us adaptation, which is scheduled to premiere in 2022, is already shaping up to be one of the most expensive TV series ever made. In July, an Alberta CTV news organization reported that an eight-figure price tag per episode, putting it firmly in the range of later seasons of Game Of Thrones. The bean counters at Amazon Studios may or may not be breathing a sigh of relief over the reported $456 million budget for the Lord Of The Rings series that’s due out next year. But, given that Amazon was prepared to spend $1 billion on an adaptation of Liu Cixin’s The Three Body Problem in 2018, it probably still feels like pocket change.

Naturally, such hefty production costs may lead you to wonder what kind of story is being crafted for HBO by Neil Druckmann (who served as both writer and creative director on the Last Of Us game) and Craig Mazin (Chernobyl). The casting decisions have certainly been inspired—Pedro Pascal will lead the series as Joel, a smuggler whose tough façade is initially mirrored by his latest “cargo,” a teenage girl named Ellie, who’s played by Game Of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey. Their relationship is the emotional core of the game’s post-apocalyptic narrative, and will almost certainly have similar prominence in the series.