HBO’s The Last of Us, an adaptation of Naughty Dog’s acclaimed action-adventure, finally premieres today. First announced in 2020, it’s received positive reviews from critics, with some calling it the “best video game adaptation of all time.”
Created and written by game director Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin (of Chernobyl fame), The Last of Us HBO series starts Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. The story sees the two travelling across the United States to deliver Ellie to the Fireflies in the hopes of manufacturing a cure to the deadly Cordyceps virus that’s affected the world.
In a PlayStation Blog post, Druckmann provided a quick message: “It’s been an unimaginable honor (and one of my life’s highlights) to collaborate with Craig Mazin and the team at HBO to bring The Last of Us to life as a TV show. Intense pride doesn’t begin to describe my feelings as to how the show turned out. I deeply believe it captures the soul of the game that so many of you have fallen in love with.
“As you can imagine, I’m extremely excited (and extremely nervous) for PlayStation and Naughty Dog fans to dive into the first episode and experience for themselves the love the cast and crew have poured into this adaptation. From myself and everybody at Naughty Dog, thank you! It is due to your incredible passion and support that this show exists! We are forever grateful! Endure and survive!”
While the show follows the “broad beats” of the game’s story and stays faithful to the tone and spirit, it’s not a “beat-by-beat, line-by-line adaptation.” New characters, themes and locations, which expand on ideas “only briefly explored in the games,” or better serve the show’s episodic narrative structure, have been added.
There’s plenty more of The Last of Us to look forward to in the gaming sphere. Naughty Dog is working on a standalone multiplayer project set in the universe, which was described as the “most ambitious project” that Naughty Dog has ever done. A third title single-player in the series also can’t be ruled out, especially with Druckmann teasing more stories to tell.
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