Image via HBO
Adaptation is an exercise in expectation management. As such, HBO’s The Last of Us, the television series translation of the beloved PlayStation video game franchise, arrives with plenty of preconceived notions about what should or shouldn’t make it onto the screen. Initially released in 2013, The Last of Us was a remarkable leap forward for storytelling in gaming. Bolstered by motion-captured performances that transcended the screen, dynamic cinematography, a memorable narrative, and richly memorable environments, the video game ostensibly functions as a playable movie.
The show’s creative team and cast spoke to Complex about the unique challenges and new opportunities they faced while translating that experience to television. Anchored by game co-creator Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl helmer Craig Mazin, The Last of Us series presents the same story as the game, smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) is tasked with transporting precocious 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across a post-apocalyptic America in hopes that she holds the key to developing an antidote for a fungi-based, zombie-like infection that’s ravaged the population. The Last of Us tells a brutal yet hopeful tale of surviving and fighting to save just one person’s life.
Along the journey, Druckmann and Mazin found new roads to explore. Part of that was out of necessity, as the core mechanics of a video game don’t translate well to television. “There are certain realities,” Mazin tells Complex. “You have to kill a lot of people because there’s action and gameplay. If we kept killing all those people in a TV show, none of the deaths would matter. Violence wouldn’t matter.”
“Craig led the charge to focus more on the character interaction to do things we could not do in the game,” Druckmann adds. “That’s where it became interesting to zig instead of zag because it felt like it’s leaning into the strength of the story we’re telling as an HBO show versus a PlayStation game.”
Image via HBO
The zigs are an interesting way to keep gamers watching the show on their toes. To wit: The second episode is a tension-heavy installment as Joel, Ellie, and Tess (Anna Torv) begin their journey. Along the way, Druckmann and Mazin heavily explore the zombie-like Cordyceps threat, including introducing the dangerous Clickers, one of the game’s most memorable foes. At the end of the episode, Tess sacrifices herself to a horde of Cordyceps to guarantee more time for Joel and Ellie. In the game, a team of agents from the Federal Disaster Agency (FEDRA) shoots Tess instead. It’s a subtle change highlighting the dangers facing the pair on their travels.
One-to-one aspects of the source material remain, however, including the return of Merle Dandridge. The veteran television actor appeared in the games as Marlene, the grizzled leader of the Boston contingent of the Fireflies, a revolutionary group seeking to overthrow the oppressive leadership of FEDRA. Marlene is the one who tasks Joel with transporting Ellie, and Dandrige continues to find new insights into the character after playing her over the last decade. But a return wasn’t guaranteed. She heard from Druckmann about a chance to reprise the character, but it came during a particularly fruitful time in her career as a television performer, so a return wasn’t guaranteed. Kismet ultimately prevailed, however. “A plethora of things rolled into the ingredients for which the opportunity was able to present itself,” Dandridge tells Complex. “To be able to take an old friend for a new ride and to able to walk out things that I had stored in my vault of emotional baggage that she had, and I could see them realized was a wonderful, wonderful treat.”
Gabriel Luna, who plays Joel’s brother Tommy, also relied on his experience with the game. Luna played the game after its release and found that was helpful for his portrayal of Tommy: “It was critically important for me to experience Jeffrey [Pierce’s] performance to find ways I could honor it, but also to rely on where the new elements of the story take us in my own instincts, and how I react in those moments to help differentiate our show from the game. I was very fortunate that this is very much in my spirit.”
We only spend a brief amount of time with Tommy, but we get the details to paint a vivid picture for Luna’s portrayal. He’s resourceful—a skillset reinforced by his tenure in the military—but he’s very clearly looking for his calling and to find a place within a group. The desire to belong will eventually draw him into joining the Fireflies—a factor that becomes a point of tension between him and Joel. But the two brothers are certainly in lock-step throughout the initial Cordyceps infection, as hell breaks loose in the Austin suburbs, a sequence which Luna loved due to the extensive production design of John Piano. “It was exciting and thrilling to see them recreate a small Texas town just of outside of Austin, down in Fort Macleod, Alberta, where you can walk multiple blocks and still be on the set,” he says. “You can go and touch all the walls and realize that not only is this entire street our set, but everything is production design. You truly felt like you were in that prologue of the game. You truly, truly do.”
The realism and tacticity of Piano’s sets are, quite literally, by design, according to Mazin. “One of the things, philosophically, that John and I talked about from the start was giving the actors physical places to be. It’s what we did in Chernobyl. Then, using visual effects to expand and extend—but always give the actors the real. Put real stuff between their feet, put it in front of them, put it in their hands, and let them occupy the space. Truly, that’s where reality lives. Everything beyond should be this seamless extension of that world. I just love how much there is.”
The effect is staggering; there’s a reality to the world, whether it’s the density of the Boston quarantine zone, the lush vegetation Ellie awakes in at the beginning of the second episode, or even a snow-covered village during the holidays—Piano and his team bring you into the fold in such an immersive way. Druckmann also stated the care Piano put into creating the world was deeply meticulous—down to studying “threading on the bedsheets” to bring everything to life. “HBO gave us the resources to tell the story properly,” he adds.
Image via HBO
The practicality of the design extended to the scripts (many of which are credited to Mazin) and how Pascal and Ramsey forged their relationship on set as they filmed the series. The proof is in the pudding. Any adaptation of The Last of Us wouldn’t work without nailing the casting of Joel and Ellie. Fortunately for this series, both performers bring the characters to life with specificity and vivacity. It’s a fine line to draw on what’s come from the game without ever falling into a karaoke version of what came before while still managing to put their respective spins on the material. That’s a difficult needle to thread, yet Pascal and Ramsey make it seem effortless.
Creation is a special kind of alchemy. Disparate portions have to meld together to produce something cohesive from start to finish. To have it happen once, resulting in The Last of Us video game, is a magic trick in and of itself. But for it to occur a subsequent time feels like catching lightning in a bottle. And yet, HBO’s version of The Last of Us is every bit a worthy adaptation of the game upon which it’s based, managing to retain the spirit of its source and also find ways to improve upon it in the process. That’s a rare feat—and one that will likely shatter the weighty expectations placed upon it from the get-go with every single step Joel and Ellie across their journey.