Anyone who was worried about the upcoming HBO adaptation of The Last of Us should be breathing a sigh of relief today. While the actual casting has not been announced yet, we now know that the television show will at least sound a lot like the original game.
That’s because it was announced that Gustavo Santaolalla, the composer of both The Last of Us and the upcoming The Last of Us Part II will be returning to provide the score for this series.
This information was first pushed out by Neil Druckmann, who is both the game’s writer and creative director as well as one of the showrunners for this new series.
Well this is exciting! Beyond lending his incredible musical talent to The Last of Us Part II, Gustavo Santaolalla is joining us to bring over The Last of Us to HBO!
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) March 11, 2020
“Well this is exciting,” Druckmann said. “Beyond lending his incredible musical talent to The Last of Us Part II, Gustavo Santaolalla is joining us to bring over The Last of Us to HBO.”
Craig Mazin, the creative mind behind Chernobyl who will be serving alongside Druckmann as showrunner, retweeted this announcement, stating that it’s not The Last of Us without Gustavo’s music.
https://twitter.com/clmazin/status/1237868254741196800
Santaolalla has a resume that goes far beyond just the video game industry. He has a rich and storied career writing music for various projects throughout both TV and film. He wrote the music for Making a Murderer, Jane the Virgin, Hell on Wheels, Before the Flood and was even nominated for Academy Awards for his work on Brokeback Mountain and Babel.
It was announced earlier this month that HBO would be adapting the supremely popular PlayStation exclusive to an all-new series.
This was one of the first video game adaptations to be announced since Netflix’s The Witcher made waves throughout the streaming world late last year. The Witcher received a ton of acclaim from fans all over the world for its faithful adaptation of the world created in both the book series and games.
It is very possible that we’re going to see more video games green-lit to series for various streaming services and television networks in the coming year.
God of War director Cory Barlog has petitioned online to have God of War made into a Netflix series.
That would be a perfect property to adapt into a gritty and violent streaming story.
With gaming’s recent swing toward narrative-based single player experiences, there will be a wealth of properties for the entertainment world to choose from. In fact, Sony executives recently stated that their upcoming PlayStation 5 console will be focusing heavily on such games.
