The Last of Us Debuts Nick Offerman and Surprising Character in Episode 3 Preview

HBO’s The Last of Us is moving right along, with two of the show’s nine episodes already having seen release. Tacked onto the end of Episode 2 was a preview for next week’s episode, one introducing another pair of fan-favorite characters from the source material. Both Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) are on their ways to live-action.

After the events of the latest episode, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are forced to seek the duo out and their voyage West to find the sect of Fireflies hard at work developing a vaccine to the outbreak. See the preview for yourself below.

While Episode 2 was the shortest of the season yet at just 50 minutes, Episode 3 will run for an hour and 20 minutes. Episode 4 will then return to a shorter, 50-minute runtime.

“Obviously, there are some big things that we know we’re keeping, of course, but then there are challenges from the game to the show that had to be considered,” The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin previously told us. “For instance, little things like the spores. In the game, there are these where you encounter spores and you need to put a gas mask on. In the world that we’re creating, if we put spores in the air, it would be pretty clear that they would spread around everywhere and everybody would have to wear a mask all the time and probably everybody would be completely infected by that point..

He added, “We challenged ourselves to come up with an interesting new way for the fungus to spread but mostly I think we just connected with the soul and spirit of the game. He, as the creator of the game, and me, as a fan of the game, we were caretakers on behalf of all the fans but also on behalf of all the people who haven’t played the game who need a television experience that is holistic and connected to itself and doesn’t feel like you ned to play a game to understand.”

For more Last of Us content, check out ComicBook and Entertainment Tonight’s new podcast: The Last of Pods. The podcast will include breakdowns of each episode, interviews with special guests from the show, and more. The Last of Us airs on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Eastern every Sunday with The Last of Pods debuting immediately following each show.