HBO’s The Last of Us gets a first proper trailer, with a sneaky cameo

HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us has received its first proper trailer, giving us a good, long look at the show, alongside a sneaky cameo.

So far we’ve only been drip fed tiny morsels of what we can expect from the live-action take on Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, like these posters earlier this week, and a short teaser in August. But HBO has released a full trailer for us all to take a gander at, which is bafflingly set to a movie-trailer-dramatic version of a-ha’s Take On Me.

If you’re new to the series, the trailer does a helpful job of setting up the main concept: Joel is taking Ellie, a teenage girl that’s been bitten by an infected person, but hasn’t turned herself, across to the west-side of the country to understand why she’s alive, and possibly figure out a cure.

After the little bit of setup, we get that montage with Take On Me, for some reason, and get brief looks at some familiar faces like Marlene, portrayed by Merle Dandridge, who also played her in the game, Riley from the Left Alive DLC (Storm Reid), Bill, (Nick Offerman), and Sam and Henry (Keivonn Woodard and Lamar Johnson). The trailer rounds off with an ominous shot of the bloater type of infected, an obvious threat to anyone who’s played the games.

Most interestingly about the trailer though is one particular shot that shows off a character holding a baby, played by none other than Ellie’s original voice actor Ashley Johson. Fans had been speculating what kind of cameo Johnson would make in the series, as both her and Joel VA Troy Baker have both been confirmed to be appearing in the show. And with this brief shot, some are wondering if she will be portraying Ellie’s mother, Anna, who we never actually see in the games.

It won’t be long until we find out though, as The Last of Us show comes to HBO Max on January 15, next month.