The Last of Us episode 9 trailer teases an explosive season finale

By Dan Girolamo March 6, 2023 7:51AM

After a terrific run of episodes, The Last of Us will conclude its first season with an explosive finale this Sunday night. In the episode 9 trailer, Joel (The Mandalorian season 3’s Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey) make their final trek to Salt Lake City to meet up with a group of Fireflies who may be able to create a cure for the Cordyceps infection. As Ellie says to Joel in the footage, “There’s no halfway with this. We finish what we started.”

Fans of the video games will notice a familiar face in the episode 9 trailer. Ashley Johnson, who portrayed Ellie in the video games, will play Anna, Ellie’s mother, in episode 9. The tense footage shows Anna writhing in pain as she tries to stave off an infected woman.

Episode 9 Preview | The Last of Us | HBO Max

In The Last of Us episode 8, Ellie continues to care for Joel, who is recovering from his stab wounds received at the end of episode 6. While hunting for food, Ellie meets David (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie), a preacher and leader for a group of settlers in a neighboring town. At first, David is polite and cordial to Ellie, offering medicine for Joel in exchange for deer meat. Ellie learns that the man Joel killed was a member of David’s settlement, and his followers want revenge for the murder.

David captures Ellie and places her in a cage while his followers attempt to kill Joel. Ellie is horrified to learn that David fed his followers human meat. When David offers her a chance to join the settlement and start a relationship with him, Ellie declines and breaks his finger. Before David and his sidekick James (Troy Baker, the voice of Joel in The Last of Us video games) can torture her, Ellie kills James and hides in the steakhouse. David finds Ellie and attempts to rape her, but the young girl grabs a meat cleaver and repeatedly stabs David to death. Joel, who killed the followers that went after him, eventually reunites with a startled Ellie, comforting her as the two leave the town.

A young girl stares and looks in the Last of Us. — HBO

The Last of Us episode 9 will premiere at 9 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 12. You can watch The Last of Us on HBO Max.

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HBO’s The Last of Us reinforces an important queer theme from the games

By Peter Hunt Szpytek

February 7, 2023

the last of us hbo show video game queer themes long time bill and frank

Spoilers for The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part II, and The Last of Us HBO show.

The Last of Us video games put queer stories front and center in the narrative, and the HBO adaptation of the same name is following their lead with its focus on a gay relationship in its third episode, Long, Long Time, which aired recently. While the relationship between Bill and Frank was certainly present in the 2013 zombie action game, it was relegated to the background as Joel and Ellie navigate the beginnings of their complicated relationship. In the show, however, we're shown the couple's 20-year relationship as they grow from hesitant strangers to lifelong partners.

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5 ways video game adaptations can learn from The Last of Us

By Tomas Franzese

February 6, 2023

video game adaptations can learn last of us the hbo pedro and nick

The first season of The Last of Us on HBO is going down as one of the best video game adaptations of all time, even if it's not perfect. Whether you believe the lousy reputation video game adaptations have is justified or not, these first few episodes of the series serve as the premier examples of how to adapt a game properly. As such, it's worthwhile to break down what other video game adaptations can learn from The Last of Us.
Halfway through the first season, five factors have played a significant part in The Last of Us' continued success on HBO. Thankfully, they are all elements other video game adaptations could learn from, even if they are based on an IP with a significantly different tone. If the quality of this show is any indication, video game adaptations have a bright future.
Be faithful

This one seems like it should go without saying, but it's something a lot of films and TV shows based on games don't get right. Even successful ones like the Sonic the Hedgehog films seem to feel a bit ashamed of the source material when they bring video game characters into the "real world." The Last of Us series works masterfully because it plays into the strengths of the source material, adapting an already critically acclaimed story accurately and respectfully. As a result, a great story is still great.
HBO's The Last of Us isn't a direct 1:1 adaptation (more on that later), but it's still unmistakably a TV version of the video game's story and even gameplay in some segments. That faithfulness shows respect for the game and is more likely to get fans on board with the creation and any potential deviations it might make. Sadly, many video game adaptations seem like they feel embarrassed of the source material, which shows in the quality of the final product and the fan reception to it.
Improve upon the source material

Movies & TV

The Last of Us TV show will return for Season 2 at HBO

By Tomas Franzese

January 27, 2023

Ellie stares at Joel and Tess in the The Last of Us TV show.

HBO has confirmed that the critically acclaimed The Last of Us TV show will return for a second season.
This announcement comes from a tweet posted after only two of the series' episodes have aired. That said, the show garnered critical acclaim, broke some HBO viewership records, and doesn't yet appear to incorporate many plot elements from The Last of Us Part II, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that the series is continuing. According to the tweet, the second season of the show will air on HBO Max (or whatever that service ends up becoming later this year).
https://twitter.com/TheLastofUsHBO/status/1619017515581018112
No release window, story, or casting announcements were made in relation to The Last of Us Season 2, although that isn't very surprising as the show's first season is still airing. That said, it seems extremely likely that it would follow the plot of The Last of Us Part II, which sees Ellie go on a quest for revenge after an extremely traumatic event that we won't spoil here. While the second game in this series proved to be much more divisive than the first, there's certainly no shortage of dramatic moments and intriguing plot developments for Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin to adapt to television in another season. The Last of Us is currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max every Sunday night. Digital Trends gave the series a four-star review, with Alex Welch writing that The Last of Us is a "lovingly made, often emotionally riveting adaptation of what is one of the most treasured titles in video game history."