The Last of Us: HBO teases first look of Catherine O’Hara, Isabela Merced and Jeffrey Wright

Thanks to social media and streaming, pop culture might be fractured more than ever before with everyone’s divergent tastes sending them off into all sorts of niche directions.

But when it comes to zeitgeisty TV, American cable brand HBO still commands a lot of attention. So, when it drops a “hype reel” of its upcoming shows for the rest of 2024 and into 2025, it’s definitely notable.

Especially when it ends the two-minute video with the first glimpses of the second season of The Last of Us, the critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic drama adapted from the lauded video game of the same name.

There are so many dystopian shows and movies (definitely not making us more paranoid about the end of days), so if you need a reminder of which one it is, The Last of Us is the one with the mushroom monsters. Technically, they were humans who were turned into terrifying zombie clickers by a fungus infection.

It stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay as Joel and Ellie, a surrogate father-and-daughter pair who are making their way from one side of a decimated and dangerous USA to the other. Ellie has a special immunity to the virus and Joel’s task is to deliver her to a group of people looking for a cure.

The first season ends on a note that will have wide-ranging consequences for the next chapter, including Joel’s guilt over the acts he committed to ensure Ellie’s survival.

The 24-second video preview starts with Catherine O’Hara’s character asking, “Did you hurt her?” to which he replies, “No, I saved her”. Pascal’s face is a potent combination of guilt and anguish, hinting at the turmoil to come when the series returns next year.

There are also action-packed clips of what to expect, featuring a snowy environment, gunfire, horses and the first look at new characters portrayed by Jeffrey Wright and Isabela Merced. O’Hara is also a fresh addition to the show and there is a mystery around who she will play.

The first season followed the beats of the first video game while the seven-episode second instalment will pick up with the story of The Last of Us Part II which introduces a new lead character, Abby, who will be played by Kaitlyn Dever.

In the game, Abby is introduced as an antagonist but becomes an empathetic character when the game shifts to her perspective.

The series was created by Neil Druckmann, who also developed the game, and Craig Mazin, who was behind the Chernobyl miniseries. The show is still filming and is expected to wrap this month. It is slated for a 2025 release.

Screen adaptations of video games have traditionally struggled with fans but The Last of Us heralded a raft of better-received projects such as Fallout and The Witcher.

The Last of Us was nominated for a slew of awards, including 24 Emmys, but often lost the most high-profile ones to Succession, which had stormed the circuit for its final season.

The HBO video also featured scenes from upcoming shows The Penguin, the Dune spin-off Prophecy, the IT spin-off Welcome to Derry, Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, J.J. Abrams series Duster, a reunion between ER alums Noah Wyle and John Wells in The Pitt, and Armando Iannucci’s next project The Franchise, a behind-the-scenes satire of a superhero movie.

It also previewed the next seasons of The White Lotus (“What happens in Thailand, stays in Thailand”), And Just Like That, The Gilded Age and The Sex Lives of College Girls.