The Last of Us Episode 8 trailer has been released. In keeping with the trend, HBO has released a preview of the next installment of the post-apocalyptic drama based on the beloved PlayStation video game, teasing a group of cannibalistic survivors who come to Ellie and Joel’s aid, albeit with ulterior motives. Titled “When We’re in Need,” this new episode stars Troy Baker – Joel’s original voice actor – as James, a senior member of said settler group. Episode 8 would have been 51 minutes long and is directed by Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider). Episode 8 of The Last of Us airs March 6 at 8:30 a.m. IST / March 5 at 9 p.m. ET on Disney+ Hotstar and HBO Max, respectively.

The Last of Us Episode 8 trailer takes us back to the present, where Joel (Pedro Pascal) is struggling to recover from his near fatal injury. “You won’t survive long there,” David (Scott Shepherd), the leader of the settlers, says to Ellie (Bella Ramsey), after following his path to their refuge. “There’s room for you in our group, if you want.” Being cannibals, David’s group has a deceptive front – one that fears God and is ready to help anyone at any time. Of course, our protagonists are unaware of this, and Ellie, being a suspicious person, continued to refuse his advances anyway. “I don’t want to question your sense of mercy, David. She’s just another mouth to feed,” James (Baker) tells David, who is adamant about forcing her into their band. Episode 6 saw our hero pair scour the university for any signs of the Fireflies, which ended with an encounter with a strange group of survivors – one of whom injured Joel. Turns out they were part of David’s gang.

Now David understands Ellie and Joel’s promise and sees them as a worthy addition to their group. “The others want to kill you. Let me protect you,” he confidently tells Ellie, who has presumably been captured and taken to their base – if we’re following the video game’s series of events. The trailer for episode 8 of The Last of Us also shows the scene where Ellie, now adept at hunting, kills a deer, which she offers in exchange to one of the survivors for a syringe and a vial of penicillin. The events depicted in the trailer also raise the question of whether The Last of Us Episode 8 will also feature Ashley Johnson as Anna, Ellie’s birth mother. For the uninitiated, she voiced and provided motion capture for Ellie in the original video game.

Reports from earlier this month suggested that HBO content including The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, Euphoria and more is set to leave the Disney+ Hotstar platform in India, due to some ‘restructuring plans’ established by the returning CEO of Disney. Bob Iger. Currently, there’s no word on which platform HBO content would move to, once plans are rolled out, although Amazon Prime Video is seen as the favorite to secure streaming rights.

HBO also announced in January that The Last of Us series has been renewed for a second season and will follow the events of the polarizing bloody sequel, The Last of Us Part II video game. Showrunner Craig Mazin also suggested that Season 2 could be split into two parts, given how much bigger and more complicated the story was.

New episodes of The Last of Us air every Monday on Disney+ Hotstar at 8:30 a.m. in India and Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO Max wherever available. Season 1 is supposed to have nine episodes, seven of which have been released so far.