Watch the Trailer for The Last of Us Episode 8

The Last of Us episode 8 trailer is out. Keeping with the trend, HBO has dropped a preview for the upcoming episode of the post-apocalyptic drama based on the beloved PlayStation video game, teasing a group of cannibalistic survivors who come to Ellie and Joel’s aid, but with ulterior motives. Titled ‘When We Are in Need,’ this new episode stars Troy Baker — the original voice actor for Joel — as James, a senior member of the said group of settlers. Episode 8 reportedly clocks in at 51 minutes and is directed by Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider). The Last of Us episode 8 premieres March 6 at 8:30am IST/ March 5 at 9pm ET on Disney+ Hotstar and HBO Max, respectively.

The trailer for The Last of Us episode 8 brings us back to the present, where Joel (Pedro Pascal) struggles to recover from his near-fatal injury. “You won’t survive for long out there,” David (Scott Shepherd), the settler’s leader tells Ellie (Bella Ramsey), having tracked his way into their safe house. “There’s room for you in our group, if you want.” Being a cannibal, David’s group has a deceiving front — one that is god-fearing and willing to help anyone at a moment’s notice. Of course, our protagonists aren’t aware of that, and Ellie being an untrusting person kept refusing his advances either way. “I don’t mean to question your sense of mercy, David. She’s just another mouth to feed,” James (Baker) tells David, who is adamant about forcing her into their group. Episode 6 saw our pair of heroes scouring through the university for any signs of the Fireflies, which ended with an encounter with a weird group of survivors — one of whom injured Joel. As it turns out, they were part of David’s gang.

Now David understands the promise Ellie and Joel have, and sees them as a worthy addition to their group. “The others want to kill you. Let me protect you,” he tells Ellie in confidence, who was presumably captured and taken to their base — if we’re going by the video game’s series of events. The Last of Us episode 8 trailer also shows the scene where Ellie, now adept at hunting, shoots down a deer, which she offers in exchange with one of the survivors for a syringe and a bottle of penicillin. The events depicted in the trailer also raise the question of whether The Last of Us episode 8 will also feature Ashley Johnson as Anna, Ellie’s biological mother. For the uninitiated, she voiced and provided motion capture for Ellie in the original video game.

Reports from earlier this month suggested that HBO content, including The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, Euphoria, and more, is set to leave the Disney+ Hotstar platform in India, owing to some ‘restructuring plans’ laid out by the returning Disney CEO Bob Iger. Currently, there is no word on the platform the HBO content would move to, once the plans are put into motion, though Amazon Prime Video is being seen as the frontrunner to gain the streaming rights.

HBO also announced in January that The Last of Us series has been renewed for a second season and that it will follow the events of the polarising gory sequel, The Last of Us Part II video game. Showrunner Craig Mazin also suggested that season 2 could be a split into two parts, given how much bigger and more complicated the story was.

New episodes of The Last of Us stream every Monday on Disney+ Hotstar, at 8:30am in India, and Sunday at 9pm ET on HBO Max wherever available. Season 1 is stated to have nine episodes, of which seven have released thus far.