Through the official HBO page, it has been confirmed that the length of the debut episode of the highly anticipated series The Last of Us will run about 85 minutes, which is a long time, even for HBO.
While HBO is known for its long uninterrupted episodes, these are usually around 60 minutes, so this is significantly longer, clocking in at the length of a feature film.
Frequently, such longer episodes are saved for season or series finales that are supposed to be more climactic, so it’s interesting to see The Last of Us jump out of the gate with a premiere this long.
The episode’s length can be confirmed by looking at HBO’s time schedule for Sunday, January 15, which is the day the show is expected to premiere.
It says that the episode will begin at 21:00 ET and will end at 22:25 ET. Sadly, exact duration of the first episode is not yet known, but will probably be revealed soon, due to the credits and post-episode interruption.
The Last of Us from HBO is set to tell the story of the video game of the same name released exclusively on PlayStation since 2013.
It starts with a rather long prologue, so it’s possible that the show runners simply wanted to give that sequence the time it deserves, also having time to build up the main plot later.
Much information about the show came out recently thanks to a small media tour done by the show runners, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
Druckmann stated in a recent interview that the show will have less violence than the game, something that is understandable, since the main game system of the game is combat-based, whereas the show will often be more focused on storytelling.
