The Last of Us HBO series will be scored by the games' composer Gustavo Santaolalla

(Image credit: Sony)

Gustavo Santaolalla, the composer behind The Last of Us and the upcoming sequel, will return to score the new The Last of Us HBO series.

The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann confirmed the news on Twitter, praising the veteran composer's "incredible musical talent." And indeed, the music in The Last of Us is incredibly atmospheric and does an extraordinary job building tension and evoking a range of emotions across the spectrum.

The Last of Us HBO series is being co-written and co-created by Druckmann, alongside Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin. With Santaolalla now a confirmed addition to the production, it's hard to imagine a better team to handle the adaptation.

As it's still so early, story details are a bit thin, and no casting details have been released. We know it'll be based on the events of the first The Last of Us game, with plot points from The Last of Us 2 potentially cropping up as well.

We'll presumably see Joel and Ellie braving the undead apocalypse in The Last of Us HBO series, but we also know from a recent reveal by Druckmann that Ellie’s close friend, Riley, and Joel’s friend, Tess will be included in the story, as will Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, and Maria, the wife of Joel’s brother, Tommy.

It'll likely be some time before we see The Last of Us series air on HBO, so here are the best new TV shows of 2020 to keep you occupied before then.

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.