When we think of a live-action of an extremely popular series, whether it be a game, book or play, we’re kind of unsure if the live-action would do that series justice, but HBO gives us the green light to proceed further into the TV series.
We initially heard of its television adaption back in March of 2020 when Craig Mazin – the writer behind Chernobyl – and Neil Druckmann – the game director of The Last of Us – teamed up to create the hit Playstation game into a TV show. With this adaption, the series will focus on the first game and go forward with another season to represent its sequel, The Last of Us Part II. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this would be the first time a video game series received the “prestige television treatment”. It’s not surprising that The Last of Us is getting a TV series, considering that the game itself gives off a realistic and cinematic feel to it.
The viewers were amazed by how alike the show is in comparison to the game. A lot of it comes from HBO’s casting of the characters, in which the actors resemble their game characters exceptionally well, especially actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey playing the main protagonists Joel and Ellie. They not only play their roles well, but they look just like them too. In addition to how similar the actors look to their digital counterparts, the show brings out the small, but critical details of the game, such as Joel’s accent and his watch, something the viewers didn’t expect.
But, of course, from the premiere of the first episode, fans of the game already deduced the differences in the TV show. The show sets its scene in 2003, almost a decade earlier than the game, which is in 2013. Mazin told Insider that it was a suggestion he wanted to do.
“I just had this thing where if I’m watching a show and it takes place 20 years in the future from my time now, it just seems less real.”
Druckmann also told Insider that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t alter the series as the game takes place during the influenza outbreak in 1918.
“That’s why I think it feels so real is because we’ve experienced it already as part of our history.”
Other differences viewers pointed out were the fact that there is no backstory to how the fungal pandemic came to be or why you don’t see Sara’s day in her school and other parts of the game are just some of the minor changes made by HBO and both Mazin and Druckmann themselves, but these changes don’t affect the viewer’s perception of the show as a whole as they did this for the betterment of the show, not for their egotistical needs.
The ratings are off the charts and will expect to grow as The Last of Us proceeds to go hand-in-hand with the chronological sequence of the game and blow our minds away with how perfect and in sync it is. We are looking forward to the future episodes and potentially how the other games in the Last of Us franchise will play out on the silver screen.
Valerie is a senior studying Digital and Print Journalism and minoring in French at the University of North Texas. After her cousin introduced her to video games at nine years old, it was love at first sight and plans to experience the world of gaming journalism in the future. Though her favorite game varies, Kingdom Hearts will always forever be her number one game series. Outside of her studies and gaming, she drowns herself in coffee and tries new food places with her friends and family.
