While I would have been interested in an adaptation of The Last of Us in general, seeing that Craig Mazin is involved in the production raises my interest significantly. We learned back in March 2020 that Mazin is teaming with Neil Druckmann on adapting the Sony PS game franchise to a live-action series at HBO as a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and PlayStation Productions and then in November 2020 it got a series order without noting how many episodes it would be.
Production on the series has been ongoing and with filming underway, we’ve been waiting to see what kind of things would sneak out from it with various on-location shoots as well as more formal visuals. Neil Druckmann has hit us up on Twitter with the first look at the leads of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in full costume as they survey the landscape and while it’s just a simple from behind shot, it is like Druckmann sys. It really captures them perfectly.
The previously announced cast includes Pedro Pascall, Bella Ramsey, Merle Dandrige, Nico Parker, Gabriel Luna, Jeffrey Pierce, Murray Bartlett, Con O’Neill, and Anna Torv.
The plan is for the series to cover the original game as conceived by Druckmann and some of the elements from the second game that may make sense. Mazin received a lot of critical acclaim for bringing out the five-episode Chernobyl series and it’s easy to imagine this as a smart paring for an end of the world storyline.
Plot Concept: The story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, 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.
