The Last of Us HBO series will sometimes deviate greatly from the video game

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

When Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov was hired to direct the first episode of the HBO series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us, it was noted that his hiring indicated the show was aiming for "a serious dramatic tone". Speaking with IGN, the game's writer and creative director Neil Druckmann has confirmed that the HBO series will be focusing on drama – and even said they're purposely reining in the action so they can favor the dramatic aspects of the story.

Druckmann said that the first season of the show will be an adaptation of the first game, and he has been working with writer Craig Mazin to make sure "the philosophical underpinnings of the story" don't get lost in translation. He went on to say the show will stay close to the game at times, but "deviate greatly" at others. 

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. 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. Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them."

Starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us will be set 

twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

Pascal's character Joel, "tormented by past trauma and failure, must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity." Ramsey's Ellie is "a 14-year-old orphan who has never known anything but a ravaged planet and who struggles to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging… as well as the newfound reality that she may be the key to saving the world."

The series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and game developer Naughty Dog. Druckmann, Mazin, Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog's Evan Wells, and Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions serve as executive producers.