The first season of the American post-apocalyptic drama television series The Last of Us was originally broadcast on HBO between January and March 2023. Based on the video game franchise developed by Naughty Dog, the series is set twenty years into a pandemic caused by a mass fungal infection, which causes its hosts to transform into zombie-like creatures and collapses society. The first season, based on the 2013 game The Last of Us, follows Joel (Pedro Pascal), a smuggler tasked with escorting the immune teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic United States, wherein they encounter several other characters. The season was filmed in Alberta from July 2021 to June 2022. Neil Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the games, assisted Craig Mazin with scriptwriting the season's nine episodes.
The Last of Us received acclaim from critics, who praised the performances, writing, production design, and score; several called it the best adaptation of a video game. It was nominated for several awards—the first live-action video game adaptation to receive major awards consideration—including 24 Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. Across linear channels and HBO Max, the series premiere was watched by 4.7 million viewers on the first day—the second-biggest for HBO since 2010—and almost 40 million within two months; by May, the series averaged almost 32 million viewers per episode.
