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Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann has been speaking on what we can expect from the upcoming HBO television adapatation of The Last of Us when it eventually hits our screens.
Speaking to IGN during SXSW 2021, Druckmann revealed that the series will, unsurprisngly mainly be focused around the events of the first game, but revealed that it won't necessarily follow the proceedings too closely, saying that the "philosophical underpinnings of the story" are the important elements to retain.
"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." Druckmann also revealed how "Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them."
He also mentioned how it felt to see some of his dialogue from the game appear in the script for the show, saying "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." But he is, as you'd expect, very excited to see fans' reactions to the series, saying that he "can’t wait for people to see what we saw in the people we’ve brought together."
The Last of Us TV series is yet to be given a broadcast date, but will, in the US at least, be shown on streaming service HBO Max. As recently announced, Pedro Pascal will be playing the role of Joel while Ellie will be played by Bella Ramsey.
