Episode five of the HBO Original drama series The Last of Us will premiere early on DStv Catch Up on Saturday 11 February at 04:00 in advance of the M-Net linear premiere on Monday 13 February at 21:00. New episodes of the series will continue to air as per the usual schedule from Monday 20 February (simulcast at 03:00 and later broadcast at 21:00) on M-Net channel 101 and will be available to stream on Showmax the very next day. This change is due to the Super Bowl LVII taking place on 12 February in the US.
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilisation has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the US and depend on each other for survival.
The cast includes:
Pedro Pascal as Joel
Bella Ramsey as Ellie
Gabriel Luna as Tommy
Anna Torv as Tess
Nico Parker as Sarah
Murray Bartlett as Frank
Nick Offerman as Bill
Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen
Storm Reid as Riley
Merle Dandridge as Marlene
Jeffrey Pierce as Perry,
Lamar Johnson as Henry
Keivonn Woodard as Sam
Graham Greene as Marlon
Elaine Miles as Florence
Ashley Johnson (who voices Ellie in the game) as Anna
Troy Baker (who voices Joel in the game) as James
With a 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Last of Us has been declared “HBO’s next big hit” by Rolling Stone, with Variety noting, “one sees the near future in which the show winds up among television’s best.” IndieWire declared the new series “better than every video game adaptation that comes to mind,” with IGN hailing it as “a brilliant retelling of one of video games’ most beloved stories” and adding that it “delivers an enriching show for fans of the PlayStation hit, while also managing to stay welcomingly thrilling to newcomers.” CNN called the storytelling “absolutely fearless and unflinching, creating horrifying scenarios and moments that can be alternately touching and utterly tragic.”
The Last of Us is based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation® platforms. It is written and executive produced by co-creators Craig Mazin (Emmy® Award-winning creator of HBO’s Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (creator and writer of the award-winning The Last of Us franchise and Naughty Dog Co-President). The series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and is executive produced by Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Rose Lam Production companies: PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog.
If you missed an episode, catch up with DStv here.
Feature image: HBO