On Friday, HBO executive vice president of programming Francesca Ori announced that they’ve green-lit a television series based on The Last of Us.
The series will be written by Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin. Other key names who are involved in the series’ production include Cheryl Strauss (Chernobyl and Game of Thrones), Naughty Dog president Evan Wells, and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan.
HBO will partner up with Sony Pictures, PlayStation Productions, and Naughty Dog, all of which will be co-producing the series.
“Craig and Neil are visionaries in a league of their own,” said HBO’s executive vice president. “With them at the helm alongside the incomparable Carolyn Strauss, this series is sure to resonate with both die-hard fans of ‘The Last of Us’ games and newcomers to this genre-defining saga. We’re delighted to partner with Naughty Dog, Word Games, Sony and PlayStation to adapt this epic, powerfully immersive story.”
HBO has officially ordered The Last of Us to series, featuring key figures from Naughty Dog and PlayStation Productions as writers and producers. https://t.co/A7RJJ8PZOs pic.twitter.com/uPa2qtaVYk
— IGN (@IGN) November 20, 2020
According to Jeff Frost (Sony Pictures) and Asad Qizilbash (PlayStation Productions), The Last of Us won’t be the only game that’ll get a television adaptation.
“We’re thrilled to be working with HBO and this fantastic creative team to bring ‘The Last of Us’ series to life,” said Jeff Frost and Asad Qizilbash. “PlayStation’s innovative storytelling and ingenuity is a natural complement to SPT’s creative focus. Our collaboration is a great example of our ‘One Sony’ philosophy at work. We look forward to developing even more iconic game IP in the future.”
HBO’s official announcement said that the television adaptation will focus on the events of the first game. Also, Craig Mazin has said that the purpose of the television series will be to expand upon the events of The Last of Us rather than undo any part of it.
Of course, given that the show was just officially green-lit by HBO, we don’t who will play Joel and Ellie, but Troy Baker, who is Joel’s voice actor, has expressed interest in being a part of the show on one condition: he doesn’t want to play Joel. Instead, he wants to play a small role where he gets blown up by Joel.
Again, it’s worth noting that, as of right now, the show will focus on the events of the first game, which means that a character like Abby probably won’t be involved – at least not yet.
When the show is ready to be aired, it will be available on HBO’s main channel and it’ll be available for streaming via the HBO Max app.
