HBO's THE LAST OF US Series Scales Back on the Violence and Co-Creator Neil Druckmann Explains Why
A lot of fans of The Last of Us video game franchise are excited about HBO’s upcoming series adaptation. The footage we’ve seen so far from the series looks great, but there are sure to be some differences between the game and the series. We’ve just learned that one of those differences will be the amount of violence we’ll see.
There is a ton of detailed, brutal, and bloody violence in the game, and that was also wrapped up in a wonderfully told intimate story. Well, according to show co-creator and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann, the upcoming series is going to scale back on the violence. During a recent interview with SFX Magazine/Games Radar, Druckmann explained why:
“We need a certain amount of action, or violence, that we could use for mechanics so you could connect with Joel and get into a flow state. Then you would really feel like you’re connected with this on-screen avatar and you’re seeing the world through his eyes.
"But that doesn’t exist in a passive medium. One of the things that I loved hearing from [co-creator Craig Mazin] and HBO very early on was, ‘Let’s take out all the violence except for the very essential.’ That allowed the violence to have even more impact than in the game, because when you hold on showing the threat and you’re seeing people’s reaction to a threat, that makes it scarier. And when we do reveal the infected and the Clickers, you get to see what brought down humanity and why everyone is so scared."
That certainly seems like a good reason to cut back on the violence in the series. Whatever they can do to strengthen the story is a good thing!
Pedro Pascal stars in the series as Joel, and Bella Ramsey is taking on the role of Ellie in the upcoming video game adaptation. They are joined by Gabriel Luna as Joel's brother Tommy, Anna Torv, Merle Dandrige, Nick Offerman, Storm Reid, Nico Parker, Gabriel Luna, Jeffrey Pierce, and Murray Bartlett.
The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed by a deadly virus. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone to the Fireflies, a cure-searching organization. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Craig Mazin, the creator of HBO’s acclaimed limited series Chernobyl, wrote The Last of Us and is also executive producing with Neil Druckmann, who is the writer and creative director of the game.
The series drops on HBO Max on January 15th, 2023.