HBO sent Twitter into a tailspin on Monday when it dropped the first trailer for its The Last Of Us adaptation. If you're a fan of the games wondering whether the show will appeal to those who aren't familiar with Joel and Ellie, wonder no more. Less than 24 hours after the trailer dropped, it has already been watched 12.5 million times.That's a number that hasn't gone unnoticed by HBO. According to Benji-Sales, The Last Of Us is being positioned as the “next big thing” for the network after House of the Dragon. That news came just an hour after the trailer was revealed, at which point it had already been watched 2.5 million times.The Last Of Us being talked about in the same breath as House of the Dragon is a very big deal. While the Game of Thrones prequel was always going to be risky considering the backlash to GoT's final season, it's probably fair to say at this point that it has been an unmitigated hit. The prequel is averaging 30 million viewers per episode six weeks in.
Not only has HBO clearly put a lot of money into The Last Of Us, reportedly in the region of $10 million per episode, but it has also cast a number of top-rate actors. It also got out ahead of the curve when it comes to the video game adaptation bandwagon everyone has hopped on, hence it arriving before the BioShock and God of War adaptations despite the high production value.
That production value was shown off properly for the first time yesterday via the show's debut trailer. It also demonstrated just how faithful an adaptation of the first game season one is going to be. Almost every backdrop shown will be instantly recognizable to those who have played the game, and some shots are clearly exact replicas of ones used in the games.