THE LAST OF US Series Showrunner Says Season 1 Will Adapt the First Game and Some Aspects Will "Deviate Greatly"
The Last of Us video game is getting a series adaptation at HBO, and fans may be wondering how closely the show will adhere to the original content of the game. In a recent interview with IGN during SXSW 2021, The Last of Us game director and show executive producer Neil Druckmann spoke about his and showrunner Craig Mazin’s approach to adapting the acclaimed original game.
Druckman explained to IGN:
“We talked at length [that season 1 of the show is going to be [the first game],” noting that for him and Mazin, “the philosophical underpinnings of the story” were the essential thing to get right about the adaptation. “As far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt? They might or might not appear in it, that’s way less important to us than getting the core of who these people are and the core of their journey.”
Not releasing too much about how the show’s story will play out, Druckman did explain that viewers will definitely recognize some dialogue, as well as be surprised by large parts of episodes. He said:
“Things sometimes stay pretty close. It’s funny to see my dialogue there from the games in HBO scripts. And sometimes they deviate greatly to much better effect because we are dealing with a different medium. For example, in the game, there’s so much action you have to have to train the player about mechanics. You have to have more violence and more spectacle to some degree than you would need on a TV show because you don’t need to train people on how to use a gun. So that’s something that’s been really different, and HBO’s been great in pushing us to move away from hardcore action and focus more on the drama of the character. Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them.”
He wanted to be sure to stay spoiler-free for the fans, and said he can’t wait for everyone to see what they’ve done with the series. Are you looking forward to The Last of Us on HBO? The first episode is set to air later this year.