The Last Of Us TV Series Premieres on January 15

Naughty Dog has officially confirmed that HBO’s The Last of Us TV adaptation will debut on Jan. 15 next year. This falls in line with a premiere date that was accidentally posted early on HBO Max a few days ago. It will debut on the platform at 9 p.m. EST and the first season will be nine episodes released weekly.

The show is being helmed by Craig Mazin, the creator of Chernobyl, as well as Neil Druckmann, the co-director and writer of Naughty Dog’s acclaimed videogame series of the same name. Its first trailer, which dropped in September, gave us a look at Pedro Pascal as Joel, a man who is tasked with smuggling a 14-year-old girl Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of a quarantine zone amidst a viral fungal outbreak.

While the trailer featured many shots that mirrored the game, Druckmann previously said in an interview with IGN that the show will at times “deviate greatly” from the game. He explained that while “the philosophical underpinnings of the story” will remain intact, “as far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt? They might or might not appear in it, that’s way less important to us than getting the core of who these people are and the core of their journey.”

He also said, “HBO’s been great in pushing us to move away from hardcore action and focus more on the drama of the character. Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them.” Druckman revealed the first season will adapt the first game in the series.