Seven years after first announcing that they’d be making a movie out of the video game The Last of Us, and five since those plans collapsed, Sony is now bringing the sneaky and scary survival horror game to HBO in 2021, with some familiar names helping out.
Based on the 2013 game, The Last of Us is set in 2033, 20 years after the world’s population, and thus society, has been decimated by a fungal infestation of the brain that initially makes its victims violently insane and feral, and later destroys their eyes, forcing them to use echo location to find people… and rip their throats out. Here’s everything we know so far about the anticipated adaptation.
What Is the Game About?
(Photo by PlayStation)
In The Last of Us, tough-guy survivor Joel Miller is hired to escort a teenager named Ellie through the wasteland and to some doctors who believe that Ellie may be the cure to the plague. As they make their way from what used to be Boston to what’s left of Salt Lake City, they run into the usual post-apocalyptic tropes, including roving groups of infected, a couple of cannibals, some huge jerks, and a giraffe who’s escaped from a zoo and is getting out while the getting is good.
It’s expected that while the show will mostly follow the plot of the first game, it may incorporate elements from The Last of Us Part II, which is set five years after the first game. That said, it actually seems more likely that they’ll pull elements from The Last of Us: Left Behind, an Ellie-centric prequel set before the events of the first game.
But the series is expected to expand upon the game’s story as well, including, apparently, some elements that were previously cut from the game. In an interview with the BBC Sounds’ “Must Watch” webcast, series co-creator and writer Craig Mazin said of his Naughty Dog collaborator on the series, “Neil [Druckmann], at one point, he was like, ‘You know, there’s one thing we were talking about [doing in the first game] for a while,’ and then he told me what it was, and I was like — gonk! — OK, jaw drop, that’s going in. We have to do that.”
Mazin also said, “So the changes that we’re making are designed to fill things out and expand. Not to undo, but rather to enhance,” adding that, “It’s not like we just decided, ‘Well, wouldn’t it be cool if there’s one episode where Joel and Ellie get on motorcycles and confront a motorcycle gang?’ There’s no episodic nonsense here. The things that are new and enhancing of the storyline that we’re doing are connected in organic, serious ways that I think fans of the game and newcomers alike will appreciate.”
Who Is Developing the Series?
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
The series will feature some of the same names as the games. Druckmann — who was the writer and a co-director of the first game and a co-writer and co-director of its recently released sequel — is one of the show’s co-creators, and will probably write or co-write some episodes, while one of the show’s executive producers is Evan Wells, who is the CEO of Naughty Dog, the company that made The Last of Us games.
As we mentioned, some of the people who worked on The Last of Us games will also be helping out on the HBO show. Along with the aforementioned Druckmann and Wells, the show will also feature music by Gustavo Santaolalla, who’s done the score for both games, as well as for such TV shows as Jane the Virgin and Making a Murderer.
As for people working on The Last of Us who aren’t employees of Naughty Dog, there’s the aforementioned co-creator and writer Craig Mazin, who served the same roles on the HBO series Chernobyl, and was a consulting producer on the first episode of the video game sitcom Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet.
The Last of Us will also employ director Johan Renck, who’s an executive producer on the show, and is slated to direct the first episode (and will probably do others as well). Renck previously worked with Mazin when he directed Chernobyl, and has also directed episodes of Halt and Catch Fire, Bates Motel, and, most relevantly, The Walking Dead.
On the business side, The Last of Us is being produced by Sony Pictures Entertainment in conjunction with PlayStation Productions. No strangers to television, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s credits include Breaking Bad, The Boys, and Seinfeld. As for the relatively new PlayStation Productions, The Last of Us show is their first TV show, and only second announced production after — fittingly — a movie based on Naughty Dog’s Uncharted games. It’s also slated for 2021, with actors Tom Holland (the MCU’s Spider-Man), Mark Wahlberg, and Antonio Banderas, taking direction from Ruben Fleisher (Zombieland).
Who Will Star in It?
While no casting has been announced for The Last of Us yet, one name that’s already come up — though mostly because she brought it up — is Game Of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams. Williams apparently approached Druckmann and producer Sam Raimi (Spider-Man, The Evil Dead) way back in 2014 or 2015, when Raimi was producing a movie version of The Last of Us (which apparently fell apart when Sony and Druckmann had creative differences over Druckmann’s script). Whether Williams’ enthusiasm has remained or waned since the project transitioned from a movie to a TV series is not known.
Otherwise, not much has been said for who else might play Ellie, or who might play Joel. One name that may appear in the credits is Ashley Johnson, who’s known to some people as Crissy from Growing Pains, to others as Patterson from Blindspot, and to gamers as the voice of Ellie in, yeah, The Last of Us games — though she likely won’t play that role in the series. While this is pure speculation on our part, Johnson has long been enthusiastic about her role in the game, and she has a somewhat clear schedule now that Blindspot has come to an end. And while she’s too old to play Ellie in the show, she could play one of the doctors Joel and Ellie are going to see.
As for people who could play Ellie, one has only to look at the credits of both The Last of Us games and Naughty Dog’s Uncharted games for ideas. For instance, Kaitlyn Dever of Booksmart and Last Man Standing was the voice of Cassie in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and could easily play Ellie. She even has the guitar chops that Ellie learns in The Last of Us: Part II, should the show get a second season.
(Photo by Chris Large/©Lionsgate courtesy Everett Collection)
The cast of the Uncharted games might also be a good place to find someone to play Joel. For instance, actor Jeffrey Pierce, who played young Alan Pangborn on Castle Rock and Trevor Dobbs on Bosch, has been the voice of Tommy in both The Last Of Us and The Last Of Us: Part II, and could easily grow a beard and an attitude to play Joel.
Similarly, there’s Graham McTavish, who’s had roles in such shows as Lucifer, Outlander, and Preacher, but is known to game fans as the voice of Zoran Lazarevic in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, the voice of Charlie Cutter in Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, and did both of their voices in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
Of course, if they do cast from their Rolodex, Druckmann and company will have to expect calls from other voice actors who’ve been in their games — including The Rookie‘s Annie Wersching and Farscape‘s Claudia Black, who appeared in The Last of Us and multiple Uncharted installments, respectfully — but maybe they could join Johnson as one of the medical professionals.
One name you shouldn’t expect to see in the credits, however, is Ellen Page. In 2011, when the first trailer for The Last of Us was unveiled, people noted how much Ellie looked like The Umbrella Academy star, not the least of whom was Page herself, who, at the time, was lending her voice and likeness to a different game, Beyond: Two Souls. “I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness,” Page said during a Reddit AMA, “But I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond: Two Souls, so it was not appreciated.” Following the kerfuffle, Ellie was slightly redesigned to look more like Johnson… but only ended up looking like a cross between her and Page.
When Will It Premiere?
(Photo by PlayStation)
As with all TV shows these days, production on HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike productions that started filming and then had to stop, though, Mazin said in the aforementioned BBC interview that he and Druckmann have only just moved onto the writing stage, having figured out what Mazin calls “the first cycle” of the series. Hence why The Last of Us won’t be shambling onto HBO until 2021 at the earliest, which isn’t great news for eager fans, but it is just enough time for the unfamiliar to finish playing the games before the show spoils everything for you.
The Link LonkSeptember 03, 2020 at 06:30AM
https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/everything-we-know-about-the-last-of-us-hbo-series/
Everything We Know About The Last of Us HBO Series - Rotten Tomatoes
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