Why is “The Last of Us” series so eagerly awaited?

• The first episode

  of The Last of Us

  will be available this Monday on Amazon Prime Video.

• The adaptation of the eponymous video game, considered a masterpiece, is one of the most anticipated series of the year.

• If you don't know the game or don't understand the hype around The Last of Us, here are some things to understand what it's all about and measure the magnitude of the event.

Since HBO announced in 2020 that the video game

would be adapted into a series, the fans of the first hour have been on the job!

This moving road trip through the ruins of humanity seems to be perfect for the small screen.

Pedro Pascal (

) and Bella Ramsey (

) seem to be the ideal duo of actors to embody Joel and Ellie, the two main protagonists.

We could read the concern of fans on social networks when we only learned on Thursday that the series expected this Sunday on HBO Max would be broadcast in US + 24 each week from this Monday in France on Amazon Prime Video, as a gift to its subscribers while waiting for the arrival of the entire HBO catalog.

If you don't know the game or don't understand the hype around

, here are some things to understand what it's all about and measure the magnitude of the event.

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An event series for HBO

"I don't think the folks at HBO were necessarily into gaming, but it only took them 20 Minutes on Google to realize that The Last of Us is the Lawrence of Arabia of video game storytelling. series creator Craig Mazin said in an interview with Indie Wire.

After

, the spin-off of

,

is HBO's next big event series which has invested, according to information from the American magazine

, a pharaonic envelope which exceeds 100 million dollars to the first season of

, more than that assigned to the first five seasons of

! 

A videogame card

If HBO is betting so much on this project, it's because

is a real video game card.

Acclaimed by critics - the game is called a masterpiece - and gamers,

, released in 2013 on Playsation 3, and its sequel, released in 2020 on Playstation 4, developed by the Naughty Dog studio, have sold over 30 million copies.

A remake of the game, titled

, was released on September 2, 2022, for PlayStation 5, and is due March 3, 2023, for Microsoft Windows. 

A post-apocalyptic world

The idea for the game was born in the imagination of Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, after seeing a documentary series on the BBC which showed an ant infected with cordyceps, a dangerous parasitic fungus. 

The plot of

game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of our world, a few years after a pandemic caused by a fungus called cordyceps hit Earth and turned humans into "infected", basically zombies. 

A duo of endearing heroes

The strength of the game lies in its two believable and endearing main characters, Joel, a 50-year-old hardened by hardship and physically scarred by pain, and Ellie, a young teenager who has only ever lived in a quarantine zone and marvel at nothing.

Joel is hired to rescue 14-year-old Ellie from an oppressive quarantine zone in hopes of finding a cure for the evil ravaging the planet. 

A shooting game that leaves room for emotion

What begins as a simple job as a smuggler quickly becomes a harrowing journey through the ruined United States.

As their journey and encounters with other survivors progress, these two beings separated by everything will gradually bond and depend on each other for their survival.

This shooting game where the player controls Joel obeys the codes of the

genre while leaving a lot of room for emotion, all served by the sublime soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla, winner of two Oscars for best film music .  

Breathtaking graphics

The other asset of the game is the richness of its graphics, from the dark basements of the subway under water to the rural villages, passing by the interiors strewn with debris of the abandoned houses.

A creative team at the top

Neil Druckmann, the game's director and screenwriter, tried to make a film adaptation with horror master Sam Raimi, but the project fell through due to differences with the studio.

He finds himself at the helm of the series with another regular in post-apocalyptic settings, Craig Mazin, to whom we owe the overwhelming

series .

On screen, alongside Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey,

season 1 hotel manager extraordinaire Murray Bartlett,

and Nick Offerman, the unforgettable Ron Swanson in the series

.

A series that holds surprises

Neil Druckmann indicated that the first season of

would basically cover the plot of the first video game… But

series has some surprises in store for fans of the first hour: the chronology will be modified, elements removed or added, including the promise to have details about the contamination process linked to the fungal virus known in the games.

Verdict this Monday on Amazon Prime Video. 

Series

“The Last of US”, HBO series and Warner channels soon available on Amazon Prime Video

Series

The 23 most anticipated series of 2023 on the platforms

• Series

• HBO

• Amazon Prime Video