The Last of Us HBO series shows off a new series of character posters

The gang’s all here

The January 2023 release date of HBO’s highly anticipated The Last of Us series is quickly approaching, which means we’re getting more glimpses of the show ahead of its debut than ever before. The most recent unveiling was a series of posters featuring the series’ most prominent side characters, which HBO posted as a thread to the official HBO Last of Us Twitter account. There are five in total, featuring Bill (Nick Offerman), Frank (Murray Bartlett), Sarah (Nico Parker), Riley (Storm Reid), and Henry (Lamar Johnson).

This new series of posters follow those featuring the series’ main cast, including Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Tess (Anna Torv), and Marlene (Merle Dandridge). Each character also has a specific role assigned to them along with their poster, like Joel being labeled “the protector,” Tess being “the smuggler,” or Bill being “the survivalist,” just to name a few.

The big brother. @LamarJohnsonn is Henry. #TLOUnaCCXP pic.twitter.com/BOYKNKA7BA

— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) November 30, 2022

The only friend. @stormreid is Riley. #TLOUnaCCXP pic.twitter.com/7vdMreAMrg

— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) November 30, 2022

The daughter. Nico Parker is Sarah. #TLOUnaCCXP pic.twitter.com/ywbk0DlVpz

— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) November 30, 2022

Adding these descriptors to the Last of Us posters is actually a pretty smart move if you ask me — giving each character an archetype might give viewers who are new to the series something to latch onto. The game does have a pretty large cast of characters, all things considered. It’s hard for players to forget any of them after beating the game, but hopefully these minimal introductions can at least help Last of Us virgins know what to expect going in while also giving long-time fans a look at how the characters will translate to the silver screen.

The optimist. Murray Bartlett is Frank. #TLOUnaCCXP pic.twitter.com/w1mM1819wh

— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) November 30, 2022

The survivalist. @nick_offerman is Bill. #TLOUnaCCXP pic.twitter.com/H14C14k5nM

— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) November 30, 2022

One other thing that intrigues me about these Last of Us posters are that they feature characters we don’t actually meet in the main game, particularly Riley and Frank. I’m glad to see that the show will be pulling from the Left Behind DLC, because it explores a whole other side of Ellie’s character that we don’t usually get to see. Including Frank is also an interesting development, because it means we’ll likely get to see him interacting with Bill for the first time — although mentioned, we never actually got to see Frank in the game.