Earlier this year debuted what, for many, ranks as the best adaptation of a video game in history. We are talking about The Last of Us, the HBO show based on the 2013 video game developed by Naughty Dog. By itself, the video game already had a huge fan base around the world, which naturally complicated the task of producing its TV adaptation, as expectations were sky-high and people were eager to find out how their favorite game’s story would translate on TV. And yet, HBO certainly delivered: The Last of Us became one of the network’s biggest hits, and it even attracted a large part of the audience that was not even familiar with the story or its characters.

This TV series, created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, is set in a world that has been plagued by a pandemic for 20 years due to a fungal outbreak that turns all infected people into zombies. It is in this context that Joel, a man who makes a living working as a smuggler, sets out to take an immune teenage girl named Ellie out of the quarantine zone, hoping that she will be the key to solving the outbreak. But what starts out as a job like any other becomes a life-changing experience that makes him remember how it feels to be part of a family.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey star in this production as Joel and Ellie, and their on-screen father-daughter bond endeared them so much to audiences that they became one of the most loved TV duos in no time. The show, for its part, quickly rose to be one of HBO’s most-watched productions, garnering widespread critical and audience acclaim. As a result of its popularity, The Last of Us got renewed for a second season just days after its premiere, though its release date is still unknown. If you liked this HBO hit show, here are 10 other productions to check out next.

10 The Mist

Stephen King’s work has been adapted into film, television, and even video games innumerable times. 2017 marked the release of The Mist, a TV show inspired by his 1980 novel and starring Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Frances Conroy, and Gus Birney. In this show, the residents of Bridgeville must also deal with phenomenons they neither know nor understand after a dense fog mysteriously spreads through the town and reduces everyone’s visibility almost completely.

As if this was not frightening enough, creatures lurking from within the fog do not hesitate to murder anyone who tries to go through it, not unlike how the Clickers in The Last of Us pose a threat to Joel and Ellie outside their safe zones. The Mist aired on Spike for one season, and although it was eventually canceled for poor ratings, it’s certainly a production worth binge-watching.

Stream on Apple TV+

9 The Society

The Society is another production that was canceled a little too early, but in this case, its cancelation occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This Netflix show created by Christopher Keyser features a group of Connecticut students who, having returned from a school trip that was canceled because of bad weather, discover that all of the town’s adults have mysteriously vanished.

As in The Last of Us, these teenagers must face the unknown and set up new rules to guarantee an organized survival and the preservation of their resources in view of an uncertain future, while they attempt to find out what has happened to the rest of the town’s inhabitants. But, as it is usually the case, the organization of this new society does not satisfy everyone, so a few teenagers will join forces to wreak havoc in the city and take over.

Stream on Netflix

8 Snowpiercer

 

Release Date

May 17, 2020

 

 

Cast

Daveed Diggs , Mickey Sumner , Alison Wright , Iddo Goldberg , Sheila Vand , Lena Hall , Annalise Basso , Roberto Urbina

 

 

Main Genre

Sci-Fi

 

Like The Last of Us, Snowpiercer also features characters confronted with an unknown environment, who are willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, which was also adapted for film in 2013 by Bong Joon-ho, the TV show is set in a world that has been a frozen wasteland for several years, whose only survivors travel aboard the Snowpiercer, a giant train that keeps moving around the world. But not all survivors are the same on this train: each person is provided with different resources according to the imposed social hierarchy, which eventually leads some of them to band together to seek justice.

Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs lead the cast of this production, joined by Alison Wright, Mickey Sumner, Iddo Goldberg, and Susan Park, among other actors. Snowpiercer has been on the air for three seasons now, and is awaiting a fourth and final one. Still, not much is known about its premiere, as TNT has decided not to broadcast it. Nevertheless, as a similar-but-alternative post-apocalyptic narrative to The Last of Us, Snowpiercer examines humanity pushed to their physical and emotional breaking points in a world that doesn’t seem fixable.

7 12 Monkeys

What would happen to the world in The Last of Us if Joel or Ellie could travel back in time to prevent the infectious outbreak? Most likely, their adventure and future would be totally different. And while this is not possible for the characters in this HBO series, it was indeed attainable for James Cole, the lead in the TV series 12 Monkeys.

This production, inspired by the 1995 movie of the same name and the 1962 short film La Jetée, takes the audience to the year 2043, to a world that is devastated after an organization known as the Army of the 12 Monkeys spread a deadly virus that killed billions of people and is about to put an end to the human race. Against this background, one man travels back in time to put an end to the situation from the beginning, in what will be the most dangerous quest of his life.

Stream on Hulu

6 All of Us Are Dead

All Of Us Are Dead

A high school becomes ground zero for a zombie virus outbreak. Trapped students must fight their way out or turn into one of the rabid infected.

 

Release Date

January 28, 2022

 

 

Cast

Ji-hu Park , Chan-Young Yoon , Yi-Hyun Cho , Park Solomon

 

2022’s All of Us Are Dead is the perfect show for fans of apocalyptic stories involving zombies like The Last of Us. This South Korean Netflix production is based on Joo Dong-geun’s webtoon and features a school in Hyosan where a science experiment gone wrong sparks a zombie outbreak that rampages through the city. With the institution quarantined and zombies popping up around every corner, some of the local students team up to beat the creatures and escape alive at any cost. All of Us Are Dead met with both audience and critical acclaim, prompting its renewal for a new season, which still has no premiere date.

Stream on Netflix

5 The 100

Once again, a production that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where the main characters are forced to go to any lengths to ensure their survival. The 100 is a TV series produced by The CW inspired by Kass Morgan’s novels of the same name that aired for seven seasons, wrapping up in September 2020.

It follows the survivors of a catastrophic nuclear war, who have been aboard a space station known as The Ark orbiting the planet for nearly a hundred years. After decades of living peacefully, The Ark faces a crisis when some of its systems begin to fail, so the authorities decide to send 100 juvenile criminals from the crew who have never set foot on the ground back to the Earth to determine how possible it is to relocate there.

4 Chernobyl

The miniseries Chernobyl bears many similarities to The Last of Us, and not only in terms of the tragic events it depicts. This 2019 show was headed by Craig Mazin, one of the creators of the TV adaptation of Naughty Dog’s video game, and following its premiere, Chernobyl became one of HBO’s star productions.

The main difference lies, of course, in the fact that the events featured in Chernobyl are inspired by the nuclear disaster that did take place in real life. This five-episode miniseries stars Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Emily Watson and Paul Ritter, and earned rave reviews for its accurate portrayal of the story and the cast’s performances, among many other things that were lauded.

​​​​​​​Stream on Max

3 The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian is another excellent choice to watch after The Last of Us, as it presents another epic adventure starring Pedro Pascal and features a parent-child bond that is very similar to the one in the HBO hit show. This production by Jon Favreau became the first live-action series in the Star Wars franchise and, at the same time, one of its most popular releases.

It is set a few years after the events of 1983’s Return of the Jedi and features Din Djarin, a Mandalorian bounty hunter, who goes on the run to protect the child Grogu, a creature he was supposed to deliver for assassination. The overwhelming popularity of this show spurred the development of three additional seasons, as well as the spin-off series The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and the upcoming Skeleton Crew.

2 Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is an HBO production as acclaimed as The Last of Us that also happens to share a couple of similarities with this TV series: it has Pascal and Ramsey in the cast, and features some totally unexpected deaths of very important characters. This 2011 show draws on the novels of George R. R. Martin, and, for eight seasons, follows the different noble families of the continents of Westeros and Essos as they fight for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms.

Following its premiere, Game of Thrones became a worldwide phenomenon with fans that still consider it the best TV series in history. Its popularity spawned the development of the show House of the Dragon, a prequel that also received wide acclaim and is currently awaiting its second season.

​​​​​​​Stream on Max

1 The Walking Dead

Naturally, when it comes to shows depicting post-apocalyptic worlds overrun by deadly zombies, it’s impossible not to think of The Walking Dead, one of the most popular productions of the 2010s. This AMC show based on the comic book series of the same name follows a group of survivors of a zombie apocalypse as they try to stay alive while finding shelter in a crumbling world that is constantly haunted by all the infected.

It stars Andrew Lincoln alongside Jon Bernthal, Sarah Wayne Callies, Laurie Holden, and Jeffrey DeMunn, among other actors, and aired for 11 seasons until its conclusion in November 2022. The global impact of The Walking Dead launched a franchise that expanded with productions such as Tales of the Walking Dead, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and the upcoming show The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

​​​