The Last Of Us Fans Just Got The Worst News About The HBO Show's Release Date
Big, live-action video game adaptations are a tricky thing to pull off if recent examples like Warner Bros.' "Mortal Kombat" are any indication. Video game adaptations often risk not being well received by critics or audiences. This curse seems to going strong with the latest example, "Uncharted," which is garnering a 38% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of this writing. However, another forthcoming live-action television adaptation is "The Last of Us." The new series is set up at HBO and was developed by Naughty Dog, the same studio behind the "Uncharted" games.
Production on "The Last of Us" is ongoing, and, as new sneak peeks emerge, a certain level of hype has been building. There are a few different reasons for this, with the most obvious being the cast announced thus far. Pedro Pascal will step into the lead role of Joel, Bella Ramsey will portray Ellie, and Gabriel Luna will play Joel's brother Tommy. While that's a stacked enough cast, another reason for fans to think this won't just be another dead-on-arrival video game adaptation is the fact that the show will air on HBO, a network known for producing high-quality shows like "Euphoria" and "Game of Thrones."
"The Last of Us" Season 1 has been in the works since the cabler gave it the official green light in November 2020 (via Variety). For a while now, fans have been eagerly awaiting news of a potential release date. Unfortunately, some information just dropped that may disappoint fans hoping for the show to come out anytime soon.
HBO's The Last of Us won't premiere in 2022
During a recent TCA-related interview with Deadline, HBO's Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys revealed some release date information about the upcoming "The Last of Us" show, and it's definitely bad news for anyone expecting it to debut soon. Bloys remarked, "I have seen some early episodes and I'm very excited. Craig [Mazin] did 'Chernobyl' for us. He is a fantastic writer and director. What I've seen looks amazing. So I'm excited for it, but it will not be in '22."
While the confirmation that "The Last of Us" won't debut in 2022 is disappointing for impatient fans, it's probably a good thing that HBO and showrunner Craig Mazin are taking their time with the TV adaptation. The video game, which centers around a post-apocalyptic world filled with zombie-like fungus-infected humans and Joel's quest to get Ellie across the country safely, was full of large-scale events and action-horror elements. If the show hopes to capture that feeling, it's likely going to take a lot of time and a lot of money to get it right. With that in mind, it's probably not entirely surprising that the show isn't premiering this year.
Hopefully, when "The Last of Us" does debut, it'll finally break the curse of underwhelming live-action video game adaptations.