Pedro Pascal stars in “The Last of Us”

A highly anticipated adaptation finally hits home screens Sunday, Jan. 15, when "The Last of Us" premieres on HBO. Based on the bestselling 2013 video game of the same name, "The Last of Us" follows survivors in post-apocalyptic America as they trek across the country on a special mission that could save humanity. No sweat!

Yet again tasked with sneaking a powerful child through arid, dangerous terrain is Pedro Pascal, whose experience in "The Mandalorian" portraying the titular bounty hunter comes in handy in his latest project. Pascal stars as Joel in "The Last of Us," a smuggler who has survived a bizarre fungal outbreak that forced the living into military-controlled quarantine zones or equally guarded settlements.

Joel works with his smuggling partner, Tess, portrayed by "Mindhunter" actress Anna Torv, within the Boston quarantine zone. Filming for the show, however, took place a little farther north than the New England city. Locations across Alberta, Canada, stand in for post-apocalyptic America in "The Last of Us," as eagle-eyed internet sleuths spotted in early 2022, when the Instagram fan account @HBOTheLastOfUs shared a photo and video of the show's production trucks rolling into the small town of Okotoks, just a few kilometers south of Calgary.

While on the trail of a weapon cache payday, Joel and Tess encounter the leader of a resistance militia named Marlene (Merle Dandridge "Station 19"), who offers Joel and Tess a risky trade for the guns.

Marlene assures them that if they can safely smuggle a girl out of a quarantine zone and back to where she and the other members of the Fireflies militia are hiding out, then Joel and Tess will get even more than what they traveled there for.

They aren't looking for just any girl, though. Ellie, portrayed by "Game of Thrones" and "Catherine Called Birdy" (2022) actress Bella Ramsey, could be the key to a vaccine. Most people exposed to the infection discover symptoms within days, but Ellie, infected weeks before meeting the smugglers, is far from becoming the mutated creature typical of the Infected.

Escape in a militarized, disparate society could be a fatal operation, even for experienced smugglers. After tragedy strikes the group, Joel and Ellie must continue on their own, fueled by the belief that she is the only hope for the future.

With no shortage of foes on the road, whether they are the Infected or soldiers manning the outskirts of quarantine zones, Joel and Ellie find allies along their journey, too. Gabriel Luna ("Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.") is Joel's brother Tommy, and Nick Offerman ("Pam & Tommy") is Bill, an associate of Joel's with a highly coveted operational vehicle.

With visual source material, actors always run the risk of mimicking an existing performance. Luckily for fans of the video game, the cast of "The Last of Us" tried to keep a healthy distance from the controller in order to develop their own take on the beloved game characters.

Merle Dandridge and Natasha Mumba in “The Last of Us”

In an April 2022 interview with GQ magazine, Pascal shared that while he doesn't have a knack for playing video games ("It really takes a specific kind of skill, and I don't have it,"), he did watch while his nephew took over for a while. Pascal noted, "I found the whole of it such a visually impressive experience. And then I got worried that I would want to imitate too much, which I think could be right in some circumstances, and then a mistake in others."

Pascal went on to sing the praises of the creators of the series, Neil Druckmann, who also co-created the video game, and Craig Mazin, creator of the critically acclaimed, award-winning HBO miniseries "Chernobyl," by teasing that there is something for everyone in "The Last of Us." Pascal told GQ, "It really is made for the people that love it. And there's some very intense storytelling for people who might be less familiar."

If you are already a fan of "The Last of Us" in its video game form, you might be asking why one of the most popular video games of the last decade hasn't been adapted for TV or film yet, given that its initial success upon its release in 2013 spawned game and comic book story expansions. With a built-in audience who've logged countless hours of gameplay, "The Last of Us" was an attractive property in Hollywood, but both a live-action film set to be produced by "Spider-Man" (2002) director Sam Raimi and an animated feature ran stagnant and fell apart.

In the end, the rich storytelling of "The Last of Us" feels right at home on HBO, whose HBO Max series "Peacemaker," starring John Cena ("Blockers" 2018), and ensemble cast "Doom Patrol," both adapted from DC Comics characters, are huge hits for the network.

Learn what it takes to survive a deadly outbreak when "The Last of Us" premieres Sunday, Jan. 15, on HBO.