8 Shows Like The Last of Us to Watch While We Wait for Season 2

HBO has had a huge hit with The Last of Us, the dystopian sci-fi drama starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey that is based on Naughty Dog’s hugely successful 2013 PlayStation game. The premium cable network greenlit the second season, garnering the second-highest ratings for an HBO premiere since 2010. It’s one of the best shows on HBO Max, competing with increasingly bigger titles on Prime Video and Apple TV Plus. With the first season ending on March 12 and no release date for the season, you may want to look for more shows like The Last of Us while you wait.

The Last of Us takes place in the not too distant future, after a fungal infection wipes out much of humanity and the survivors fight for their lives against hordes of infected undead. In the midst of tragedy, a grieving father agrees to take a girl to safety, but she holds a secret that may hold the key to humanity’s survival. The two journeys avoid enemies, both fungal and human.

So, what should you be watching after The Last of Us? Read on for our top picks of shows like The Last of Us, whether in their treatment of dystopian futures, contagion, and camaraderie. And if you haven’t seen The Last of Us yet – or other HBO heavy-hitters like House of the Dragon and Succession – you can watch them on HBO Max by clicking on the links below.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-MA
• runtime: 44–59 minutes per episode
• creator: Patrick Somerville
• Main cast: Mackenzie Davis, Himesh Patel, Matilda Lawler, David Wilmot, Nabhan Rizwan, Daniel Zovatto, Philippine Velge, Lori Petty
• Style: Drama / Dystopia
• Rating: 7.6 – IMDb / 98% – Rotten Tomatoes

Also streaming on HBO Max, Station Eleven is one of the best streaming originals in years. After a pandemic kills off most of humanity, the survivors try to salvage the best parts of the world before building a new society together.

The Last of Us has garnered a lot of attention as an iconic dystopian drama, and as such, it bears some similarities to Station Eleven, which featured characters playing surrogate parents to a young girl orphaned by a deadly virus. The person is also shown.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-MA
• runtime: 45 minutes per episode
• creator: Frank Darabont
• Main cast: Andrew Lincoln, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Danai Gurira
• Style: Horror/Action/Drama
• Rating: 8.1 – IMDB / 79% – Rotten Tomatoes

When the world is overrun by zombies, a group of survivors band together to survive. As the season progresses, the group changes and transforms, facing new threats, often coming from fellow survivors such as the titular Walking Dead.

Maybe the most cited example of a show like The Last of Us, The Walking Dead launching the zombie genre on the small screen, borrowing undead movie tropes for extended serialized tales of post-apocalyptic survival.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-14
• runtime: 30-50 minutes per episode
• creator: jon favreau
• Main cast: Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, Katee Sackhoff, Giancarlo Esposito
• Style: Sci-fi/Action/Western
• Rating: 8.7 – IMDB / 90% – Rotten Tomatoes

In this live-action Star Wars series, the first of its kind on Disney Plus, a bounty hunter wanders the galaxy taking on jobs to earn a living. During his travels, he encounters a young, Force-sensitive orphan and takes it upon himself to protect the boy from those who wish him harm.

If you loved Pedro Pascal starring as a surrogate father and protector of a young orphan, you’ll be happy to know he stars as the titular Mandalorian, making the series a fun homage to The Last of Us. It becomes

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-MA
• runtime: 65-78 minutes per episode
• creator: Craig Mazin
• Main cast: Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, Paul Ritter, Jesse Buckley, Adam Nagatis
• Style: historical drama
• Rating: 9.4 – IMDB / 95% – Rotten Tomatoes

Based on true accounts from survivors who experienced the disaster firsthand, this mini-series chronicles the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster in Soviet Ukraine, offering a glimpse into the lives of those who experienced it did and who undertook to answer it.

From The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin, the award-winning HBO drama offers a sobering look at real-world failures in the face of world-threatening events. While The Last of Us builds on a dystopian fiction, it attempts to draw on harsh realities, which are also reflected in Chernobyl.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-14
• runtime: 41–85 minutes per episode
• creator: Carl Schaefer, Craig Engler
• Main cast: Kelita Smith, DJ Qualls, Michael Welch, Keith Allen
• Style: horror / survival
• Rating: 6.7 – IMDb / 45% – Rotten Tomatoes

In the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse, a group of survivors work together to rescue a known individual from infection, in order to be able to use their DNA to create a vaccine for the rest of humanity.

The show followed in The Walking Dead’s footsteps and failed to really take off with critics, but it did garner a decent following for a time. It shares some strong thematic connections with The Last of Us. You can also stream Z Nation spinoff Black Summer on Netflix.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-14
• runtime: 37–53 minutes per episode
• creator: jim mikel
• Main cast: Nonso Anozie, Christian Convery, Adil Akhtar, Dania Ramirez, Stefania LaVie Owen, Will Forte
• Style: sci-fi/drama
• Rating: 7.8 – IMDB / 97% – Rotten Tomatoes

In the near future, a new breed of human/animal hybrid children is born when a pandemic kills much of humanity in this Netflix original series based on Jeff Lemire’s comic book series. Gus has lived in isolation with his father since his birth, but when his father dies, the half-deer-half-boy tags along with a terrifying stranger on a quest across the post-apocalyptic United States. does.

Like many of the titles on this list, Sweet Tooth features a surrogate parental figure who helps lead the child to safety. As in The Last of Us, the child may hold the key to humanity’s salvation. It is one of the best Netflix original shows and appeals to fans of HBO shows as well.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-14
• runtime: 47-54 minutes per episode
• creator: eliza clark
• Main cast: Ben Schnetzer, Ashley Romans, Olivia Thirlby, Diane Lane, Marin Ireland, Amber Tamblyn
• Style: sci-fi/drama
• Rating: 6 – IMDB / 77% – Rotten Tomatoes

Y: The Last Man follows a group of survivors after everyone on Earth with a Y chromosome dies suddenly and mysteriously, leaving the world filled mostly with women. One person with a Y chromosome is Yorick Brown (who also had a male pet monkey). Yorick may hold the key to what happened, if he can survive long enough as the world’s survivors scramble to keep society afloat.

Brian K. Based on the Hugo Award-winning comic book series by Vaughn and Pia Guerra, Y: The Last Man had a troubled production and was sadly canceled after its first season. Regardless, it’s one of the best shows on this list, and thankfully, you can still watch it on Hulu.

What you need to know:

• Rating: TV-14
• runtime: 44 minutes per episode
• creator: liz heldens
• Main cast: Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Sania Sidney, Jamie McShane, Caroline Chikezi, Emmanuelle Chriqui
• Style: thriller/sci-fi
• Rating: 7.2 – IMDb / 62% – Rotten Tomatoes

Project Noah, a secret government medical facility, has the potential to cure all disease, but may also end the world. A federal agent is assigned to escort a girl to the facility as a test subject. In doing so, he assumes the role of a father figure and resolves to protect her at all costs.

Based on the novel trilogy of the same name by Justin Cronin, The Passage inverts the usual trope, the parental figure leading a child somewhere that could lead to the apocalypse instead of ending it. It leads into a familiar crisis of conscience, with a twist. Despite being canceled at Fox, you can still watch season one of this on VOD.