HBO's The Last of Us is set to premiere later this month, but before the network commissioned a series based on the best-selling Naughty Dog video game, a big screen version with Sam Raimi (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) attached to direct was in development.
Creator Neil Drukmann and the Evil Dead filmmaker were working on the project with Screen Gems, but they struggled to compress the game’s roughly 15 hours of play into a feature-length narrative.
“Sam gave really solid notes, but it was an impossible task,” Druckmann tells THR. They were also "told to add more spectacular action set pieces," and Druckmann began to realize that the studio really didn't understand what made the game so special.
Thankfully, the film was scrapped, although fans will likely be very interested to learn that Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) - who was often fan-cast in the role - were in talks to play Ellie!
It sounds like both actresses may still have been in contention to land the part in the HBO show, but had "aged out" by the time casting was underway.
Williams' Game of Thrones castmate Bella Ramsey would ultimately secure the role of Ellie alongside Pedro Pascal as Joel.
What do you guys make of this revelation? Would you have preferred to see either Williams or Dever as Ellie? Drop us a comment down below, and check out a new BTS featurette.
The Last of Us is set 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed and centers on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for a deadly pandemic. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the 14-year-old girl out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the game's creator Neil Druckmann are writing and executive producing the show. The first season will adapt the events of the original game, but is also expected to include elements of the sequel. Druckmann recently confirmed that the series will take some liberties with the story.
The first season will consist of 10 episodes, and is set to hit our screens on January 15.