HBO's The Last of Us TV show will feature episodes that "deviate greatly " from The Last of Us game, according to Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann.
In an interview with IGN, Druckmann explained that while dialogue in some episodes of the TV show has been directly lifted from The Last of Us game, other episodes will “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,“ Druckmann added. “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.”
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In addition, Druckmann also revealed that, for himself and showrunner Craig Mazin, the “philosophical underpinnings of the story“ were the essential aspect they wanted to get right with the adaptation.
“As far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt?“ he said. “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.“
It'll be a while before we see it
Pre-production for The Last of Us TV show looks to be well underway, with Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal of Game of Thrones fame having been cast in the key roles of Joel and Ellie.
Season 1 of the show is set to follow along with the story of The Last of Us, which came out all the way back in 2013 on PS3, and instantly became a critical hit thanks to its incredible emotive story-telling and grim world. The story follows the journey of Joel and Ellie as they try and survive in a post-apocalyptic world and potentially help save humanity – and you know it's a good game because we gave it the number one spot in our roundup of the best games of the decade.
HBO still hasn't announced when The Last of Us TV show will release, but we imagine it won't be in 2021, with a 2022 release date potentially looking more likely, given the ongoing impact of the Covid pandemic on TV and movie production schedules.
