The HBO Adaptation Of ‘The Last of Us’ Expands The World Of The PlayStation Game
The Clickers, Bloaters, or any other monsters from the critically acclaimed Sony PlayStation game The Last of Us aren’t the scariest thing in the HBO television series The Last of Us, according to writer Craig Mazin. It occurs when a lone scientist realises that a fungus-caused brain infection will turn most of humanity into bloodthirsty cannibals. This sequence was not included in the 2013 game or its 2020 sequel; it only appears in a flashback that was created specifically for the program.
When Mazin produced the critically acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl in 2019, he used the same interest to a real-life catastrophe. The Last of Us co-writer Neil Druckmann, who also serves as the game’s creative director and a co-founder of the Naughty Dog gaming studio, met with Mazin to develop the flashbacks and the imagined beginnings of the virus. Through an expert’s response to this post-apocalyptic revelation, he delighted in the potential to broaden the Last of Us universe beyond what is depicted in the video games.
Fans of the game won’t just notice the flashbacks; the timeline has been changed such that the outbreak occurred in 2003 rather than the game’s 2013 and that the postapocalyptic story takes place in 2023 (instead of 2033). Mazin and Druckmann agreed that the game took place in the year it was released and didn’t drastically change the plot, thus the chronological relocation made sense.
This new series, The Last of Us, has already dethroned Breaking Bad, becoming a huge hit with fans of the game and also gaining new followers and fans. This is not the first time that games have been turned into other forms of entertainment and took the world by storm. We also saw this with Resident Evil, a popular video game and also a slot game by Skywind, a software provider available at new slot sites such as ZetBet and Luckland Casino. Resident Evil was turned into multiple movies, with the most popular one being Resident Evil Damnation which was released in 2012.
The plot is driven by grief
Further grounding comes from the tension that we can all relate to in the story. We follow grumpy smuggler Joel Miller throughout the course of the first season’s nine episodes as he accompanies upbeat teen Ellie across a post-apocalyptic US. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey act as the couple in the series
Pascal, who you may recognise from The Mandalorian and Game of Thrones, claimed that the horrific loss Joel suffered as the pandemic got underway is still driving him 20 years later. Ramsey, a fellow Game of Thrones alumnus, pointed out that Ellie recognises Joel’s suffering, which causes them to bond while travelling.
The two are looking for Tommy, Joel’s idealistic brother who finds purpose in working to make this awful world a better one. He is portrayed by Gabriel Luna, who has been in Terminator: Dark Fate and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.
The Fireflies, a group of rebels fighting against the military’s strict authoritarian control over survivors, appear to be leading that return to civilisation. On Sons of Anarchy and The Flight Attendant, Merle Dandridge played Marlene, who serves as their leader in The Last of Us. Fans will be happy with this casting choice because she also gave Marlene’s voice in the video games. Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who play the characters Joel and Ellie in the game, also appear in unknown roles. She also affirmed that the work she completed for the 2013 original served as a useful foundation for her return to the part in the program, but the series’ legendary reputation in the years since then opened up new horizons for investigation.
HBO said that Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann will reveal more in a companion podcast that will explore the show’s production process.
