HBO's The Last Of Us Has Been Picked Up For A Full Series

The Last Of Us will be adapted into a fully fledged television show, courtesy of a collaboration between HBO, Sony, and Naughty Dog.

Hang on, I hear you say. Haven't we already heard that this was happening? You've got me bang to rights. We first got news of the project in March 2020, but at this point in time, it hadn't been confirmed. Not that that tiny factor would have taken the wind out of the sails of Craig Mazin, the creator of Chernobyl, and Neil Druckmann, creative director of The Last Of Us. The two were chomping at the bit to work together, and the former described the latter as "the finest storyteller working in the video game medium." Druckmann lavished praise upon Mazin, too, stating how he was "blown away by his approach to narrative" and how he was a must-have on the team.

Along with these two creatives, they've also snagged Game of Thrones executive producer Carolyn Strauss and Breaking Bad director Johan Renck. It's like a magnet has been placed into a room filled with Hollywood heavyweights, and they've got iron skillets in their pockets. I'm aware it's not a brilliant simile. Thankfully, I'm not writing the The Last Of Us TV show. Swings and roundabouts.

Naughty Dog

In a report from Variety, we now know that the series has been officially greenlit by HBO, and we've received a few notes on the plot. "Based on the video game of the same name, the series 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," read the description. It reiterates that Mazin and Druckmann will be writing and exec-producing the series, and PlayStation Productions' Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan and Naughty Dog president Evan Wells are all in the role of executive producer.

"Craig and Neil are visionaries in a league of their own," said executive vice president of HBO Programming Francesca Orsi to Variety. "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."

There's no word on the cast at the moment, owing to the fact that the project is in its extremely early stages. Not to worry! We've got our own dream cast for the series, and we've heard that Joel's actor from the games wants a piece of that action, too.

Topics: News, The Last Of Us