With all the excitement surrounding the upcoming HBO series adaptation of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, it's easy to forget that the beloved video game duology almost got a full-fledged movie. But whatever happened to that version of the story? Well, according to Neil Druckmann, writer and director of the Last of Us games as well as writer of the HBO series, it looks like the infamous "development hell" that continues to plague video games of all sizes can also infect films, and the feature take on this post-apocalyptic drama was one such victim.
Originally, Druckmann and his team wanted to handle the film indie style, cutting down on the action scenes in favor of a much more intimate feel and story. The Last of Us is, after all, a heavily character-driven series, with the admittedly brutal combat scenes mainly serving to develop that end. But as planning progressed, it became more and more clear that the type of story they wanted to tell was far more suited to a series than a movie. Perhaps helping that revelation was the overarching theme coming down from the higher-ups, asking the team to keep increasing the scope of the film.
"When I worked on the movie version," Druckmann said when discussing the project on the Script Apart podcast, "a lot of the thinking and notes were like ‘how do we make it bigger? How do we make the set pieces bigger?' I think that’s ultimately why the movie wasn’t made." This sort of disconnect on the story's scope ultimately led to the HBO series being greenlit, and by extension, it seems as though fans technically have overzealous producers to thank for the chance to now see The Mandalorian himself Pedro Pascal as co-lead character Joel in The Last of Us.
The HBO series will follow the story of the first game in the Last of Us series. It's set in a post-apocalyptic setting where a mysterious fungus has toppled society, turning every living being it touches into mindless beasts. Pascal's Joel is tasked with escorting a young girl who appears to be immune to the plague across the country, where her blood can hopefully be studied and synthesized as a cure. The girl, named Ellie, will be played by Game of Thrones actress Bella Ramsey, and her developing relationship with Joel largely permeates the bulk of the story itself.
Considering both the tone and scope of The Last of Us, it definitely seems to be a good thing that Druckmann ultimately deciding that a series would serve it better than a movie. Not to say that films can't elicit an emotional response from the audience (the still continuing discourse surrounding Star Wars: The Last Jedi is proof of that), but when viewers have more time to get to know characters, the personal beats hit that much harder. It's why a long experience like The Last of Us as a game works so well, and why it translates best into a series (theoretically, anyway).
Eager fans still have a bit of a wait before The Last of Us premieres on HBO, but just knowing that this level of thought was put into what is arguably the most important part of the story should put some minds at ease until then. Here's hoping it turns out just as well as everyone is imagining it in their minds, because that always turns out well.
Source: Script Apart Podcast, Collider