First Last of Us TV show trailer has clickers, Nick Offerman holding a shotgun

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The interactive prestige TV show comes full circle as a normal prestige TV show.

HBO Max has revealed its first full teaser for the upcoming The Last of Us TV show. The nearly two minute trailer shows a montage of scenes from the show, prominently featuring Pedro Pascal's Joel and Bella Ramsey (who you may remember as Lyana Mormont in Game of Thrones) as Ellie.

The trailer begins with shots of Pascal wandering through a settlement of survivors, set to a thankfully not too cinematic-trailery-chopped-and-screwed version of "Alone and Forsaken" by Hank Williams. Just some extra stomp and clap "bwaam bwaam" added when the action gets heavy, no full cover with mournful, distorted vocals like every other serious streaming show trailer. Points from me for that.

Pascal and Bella look great in their respective roles, and everything from the costuming to the sets manage to communicate that weirdly cozy, autumnal desolation of The Last of Us without dipping into straight up imitation.

The trailer offers a few oblique glances of the infected without showing off too much, including the tasteful un-reveal of a super close-up on a Clicker's face.

rear shot of man looking up out of hole at Nick Offerman emerging holding shotgun

There he is. (Image credit: HBO Max)

Other highlights included the briefest of glimpses of Nick Offerman holding a shotgun, a fun overhead shot of Joel and Ellie crossing a snow-covered bridge (I think I just liked it because it reminded me of this bit from Fargo), and a few peeks of Joel and Ellie horseback riding like that memorable sequence from the games.

I'm not the biggest Last of Us guy, but everything here looks pretty solid, and it has a certain splash of color I always thought was missing from The Walking Dead. Plus, it's always just nice to see Pedro Pascal in something⁠—that guy almost made Wonder Woman 1984 watchable.

Ted Litchfield
Associate Editor

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.