THE LAST OF US: HBO Greenlights Live-Action TV Show Based On Hit PlayStation Franchise

THE LAST OF US: HBO Greenlights Live-Action TV Show Based On Hit PlayStation Franchise

HBO has greenlit the previously announced live-action television series adaptation of The Last of Us from Chernobyl writer and producer Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann.

By MattIsForReal - Nov 20, 2020 01:11 PM EST
Filed Under: Last of Us
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

HBO has given a full series order to the planned live-action television series adaptation of The Last of Us. The project, which is based on the hit PlayStation video game franchise, was first announced back in March.

The upcoming series has quite a bit of talent on board, with Craig Mazin, the writer and producer behind HBO's Emmy-winning series Chernobyl, working with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, the game's writer and creative director, to pen and executive produce the show. Chernobyl co-producer Carolyn Strauss and Naughty Dog president Evan Wells are also co-producing the series.

"Craig and Neil are visionaries in a league of their own," HBO Programming Executive VP Francesca Orsi said in a statement. "With them at the helm alongside the incomparable Carolyn Strauss, this series is sure to resonate with both die-hard fans of The Last of Us games and newcomers to this genre-defining saga. We're delighted to partner with Naughty Dog, Word Games, Sony and PlayStation to adapt this epic, powerfully immersive story."

Chernobyl director, Joahn Renck, was originally supposed to helm the pilot episode, but had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict. 

2013's The Last of Us game throws players into a post-pandemic world ravaged by a deadly virus outbreak. The game is centered on Joel, a hardened survivor, who is hired to smuggle a 14-year-girl, Ellie, out of the oppressive quarantine zone. The two embark on brutal and heartbreaking journey across the United States with all sorts of shocking twists and turns along the way. The game won numerous awards while going on to sell more than 17 million copies across PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

A sequel to The Last of Us was released earlier this year. In addition to the critically-acclaimed reviews, The Last of Us Part II racked up 10 nominations at The Game Awards, including Best Game Direction, Game of the Year and two nominations in Best Performance.

The HBO adaptation will reportedly “cover the events of the original game… with the possibility of additional content based on the forthcoming game sequel [The Last of Us 2].” There were even some reports suggesting the series could run for multiple seasons.

The Last of Us is widely regarded as one of PlayStation's best exclusive franchises and seeing it come to life through a HBO series should excite fans. Now the big question is, who will be cast to play Joel and Ellie?

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GhostDog
GhostDog - 11/20/2020, 1:05 PM
"Neil Druckmann"
tmp3
tmp3 - 11/20/2020, 1:08 PM
@BlackBeltJones - I feel like even if you hated TLOU 2, you can't deny that Mazin is insanely exciting as a show-runner
LongMayHeReign
LongMayHeReign - 11/20/2020, 1:12 PM
@BlackBeltJones - It's so funny to me how people tried to act like Neil literally didn't create the characters but wrote the story of the first game himself. They wanted to give Bruce all they credit not knowing he was in charge of the gameplay which coincidentally was universally agreed upon as the weakest element of the first game.

Regardless, can't wait for this series!

GhostDog
GhostDog - 11/20/2020, 1:13 PM
@tmp3 - Mazin is great. Its Druckmann.

Actually Mazin....lol
tmp3
tmp3 - 11/20/2020, 1:14 PM
@BlackBeltJones - Mazin's a real rags-to-riches story lmfao
tmp3
tmp3 - 11/20/2020, 1:08 PM
Justin Theroux would be an incredible Joel

Humperdink
Humperdink - 11/20/2020, 1:09 PM
@tmp3 -

Not a bad idea, actually.
tmp3
tmp3 - 11/20/2020, 1:12 PM
@Humperdink - Yeah, he can play feral and tormented extremely well, but also the warmth needed for his moments w/ Ellie towards the back-half. He looks old enough too.
MattIsForReal
MattIsForReal - 11/20/2020, 3:48 PM
@tmp3 - OMG YES!!
Repian
Repian - 11/20/2020, 3:52 PM
@tmp3 - Richard Armitage
JohnMarston220
JohnMarston220 - 11/20/2020, 4:51 PM
@tmp3 - Holy shit, that's not a bad idea. He's really good in The Leftovers.
4thMaster
4thMaster - 11/21/2020, 9:03 AM
@tmp3 - make it so
OmegaDaGrodd
OmegaDaGrodd - 11/20/2020, 1:08 PM
TLOU2 is probably one of the 10 best games of all time, and definitely overall better than the first, but if they were to do a second season of this show I'd want them to streamline the narrative just a bit. The first game yields itself perfectly to TV, timejumps and all. The second game could play well as a TV show, but I think it'd almost be better if they ran both character's stories in parallel rather than the "sequential" way the game played things
BigMikeReviews
BigMikeReviews - 11/20/2020, 1:08 PM
Step aside Detective Pikachu... HBO is going to take the crown for best live action video game adaptation.
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