Tags

NEW YORK — HBO sent fans into a frenzy earlier today when they released the first promotional shot of the cast of their upcoming The Last of Us adaptation picking up and moving a ladder. 

“Wow look at that, it looks like a damn screenshot from the game,” said Cameron Dorsey, a fan of the games that said he’d been initially skeptical about the live action adaptation. “That first picture they put out was pretty dope, Joel and Ellie looked great, but it was a little confusing. I don’t remember them wandering upon a crashed airplane anywhere in the game. But this picture of Joel finding a ladder in the middle of an abandoned freeway that he can use to climb up to a bridge is way more like it. Okay, now I’m pumped.” 

Executives at HBO said that accuracy to the source material was of the utmost importance to their upcoming adaptation. 

“Of course we’re allowing the writers and directors some freedom to tell the stories they’d like to tell,” said Miles Hoffman, a VP of programming at HBO. “But we must also do that in a way that is faithful to the world and themes of The Last of Us. It’s all there, the bleak portrayal of a post apocalyptic world, the refusal of the main characters to quit, and the inexplicable proliferation of ladders everywhere they go.”

Star of the show Pedro Pascal was thrilled that fans were reacting so warmly to the photograph.

“I’m glad the fans have responded to these early photos so positively,” he said. “A lot of my auditioning was actually with ladders and with simulated ladders that were added later. All of my experience acting around CG effects in The Mandalorian really got me ready for this role, it would appear.” 

As of press time, HBO’s The Last of Us is expected to premiere sometime in 2022, with many claiming it’s easily the best show of the year and others claiming it is wildly overrated. A smaller third group of people is waiting until the show comes out to form their opinion.