The Last of Us
Cordyceps growing across a map — mould spreading through a continent in time-lapse until the shapes it leaves behind resolve into two figures. Gustavo Santaolalla's guitar, carried over from the game.
The Last of Us opens with a main title sequence of 80 seconds.
At 80 seconds, it opens well above the 50-second median for drama sequences in this catalogue.
It arrived on HBO in 2023, when Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Jinx and My Brilliant Friend were also on the network.
The opening titles
Season 1
80sFungal growth filmed as though it were geography.
More drama opening titles from the 2020s
2 sequences
Bridgerton
Engraved invitations, wax seals and bees, assembled like a society page being typeset — the gossip sheet that drives the plot, doing the credits.
- Season 1
- Season 2
1 sequence
Landman
West Texas oil patch, filmed with the same proprietorial eye Yellowstone brings to Montana.
- Season 1
3 sequences
House of the Dragon
The parent show mapped a continent; this one traces a bloodline. Where Game of Thrones built cities, these titles follow blood running through stone channels and a tapestry recording who killed whom.
- Season 1
- Season 2
- Season 3
1 sequence
Slow Horses
London surveillance imagery over a theme Mick Jagger wrote for the show — a spy series whose titles are as shabby and unglamorous as its office.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Beef
A different David Choe painting behind the title card of every episode, so the opening is a gallery hung one canvas at a time across the season.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Industry
Twenty-two seconds of type and glass. A trading-floor show whose opening is over before you have settled, which is roughly how the job is depicted.
- Season 1