The Last of Us HBO

Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's The Last of US TV series is a faithful adaptation of the beloved video game, but it doesn't feel distinct as an apocalyptic ...

HBO’s The Last of Us is a more than solid adaptation in the sense that it expertly pieces together a new version of a beloved tale in a way that’s almost certain to reach and speak to a larger audience. Were those gurgles and clicks a bit more menacing and accompanied by live-action versions of some of The Last of Us’ more impressive creatures, the show might be successful on that front. Though it probably wasn’t HBO’s intention, its spin on The Last of Us highlights how being able to actually interact with a narrative like this makes it far easier to become invested in it and see past how often it wanders into paternalistic savior territory. It’s almost impressive just how much (and then some) of the first game HBO’s show manages to fit into this first season without feeling overfull. Instead, though, the show settles on being mildly alarming when it could stand to be a bit more horrific, and it’ll be interesting to see whether that shifts if and when HBO decides to move forward with a second season. But in scenes when the show’s trying to recreate some of the game’s more emotionally charged moments, The Last of Us has a way of coming across as somewhat uninspired because of how long we’ve been living with other zombie horror survival shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead. As a game, The Last of Us gave you the time and space to explore its world and really come to appreciate Ellie and Joel as people at whatever pace you wanted or needed to stay interested. But unlike the first Last of Us, which played out as a fairly linear story in the present, HBO’s series is largely built around a number of poignant flashbacks from Joel and other characters’ lives meant to illustrate just what all they’ve lost and how that loss has changed them. Years after the swift and devastating initial outbreak of a lethal mutated fungus that kicks off The Last of Us’ first season, there are still small pockets of uninfected humanity fighting to survive. Many of the show’s most pivotal moments play out similarly to how they did in the game, but details are often reworked to show you things from new perspectives or to provide insight into people’s motivations. [HBO’s The Last of Us](https://hbomax.prf.hn/click/camref:1101lqHRA/[p_id:1011l394533]/pubref:___vg__p_23307186__t_w__d_D/destination:https%3A%2F%2Fplay.hbomax.com%2Fpage%2Furn%3Ahbo%3Apage%3Athe-last-of-us-outpost) is a drastically different experience than playing its video game counterpart. [yet another survival video game](https://www.polygon.com/2013/6/5/4396286/the-last-of-us-review) about brute forcing your way through masses of infected enemies, [The Last of Us](https://www.theverge.com/23329531/the-last-of-us-part-1-review-ps5-remake)’ focus on people’s relationships and how they evolve was a major part of why the Naughty Dog title [remains such a critical darling](https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k84pe/revisiting-the-last-of-us-makes-its-sequel-feel-even-more-disappointing) with a passionate fanbase.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey head up the cast of HBO's post-pandemic adaptation.

It feels at times like it wants to let the story breathe and expand and become something else, but also as if it’s afraid of alienating the kinds of viewers Druckmann nods to in the quote above—as if it knows it has to check off a list of expected story beats and that it can’t stray too far from what certain viewers expect. You can always play it if you just want that experience again, or, hell, watch one of those YouTube videos that just compiles all the cutscenes into a “movie.” Shouldn’t the purpose of an adaptation be, in some part, to adapt, to tailor for a different medium and to, perhaps, find new emotional notes, new thematic resonances, new life in a familiar story? What I ultimately find most fascinating about the existence of The Last of Us as a TV show is this tension at its core, this seemingly endless battle between types of media. The way the show dares to diverge from the game to alter our sense of their relationship is frankly exciting, and gives the entire series a very different (and better) thematic shape than it would otherwise have. In the game, of course, you play as Sarah, exploring the house a bit as signs of impending doom—a news broadcast, an explosion in the distance—continue to mount. In the game, Frank was the longtime partner of Bill, a curmudgeonly survivalist (played in the show by Nick Offerman), but before Joel and Ellie arrive, Frank has killed himself and left a rather bitter suicide note. Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones) as Joel and Bella Ramsey (Catherine Called Birdy, also Game of Thrones) as Ellie capably head up a uniformly excellent cast, and the high-stakes tension, desperation, and struggle to find something worth fighting for in a deadly world that typified the game are all effectively recreated here. First, let’s talk about the types of changes that feel more necessary in taking The Last of Us and turning it into television. If you’ve played the game, you may recall that very early on, Joel and his smuggling partner Tess brutally torture a jerk named Robert who sold them out on a deal, breaking his bones to get information out of him and ultimately executing him. The headband is comfortable to wear, will produce stereo sound, and is capable of noise-canceling. But the fact that a playthrough of The Last of Us takes about 15 hours has always made me associate it more with prestige TV than with movies. And now, the game that always felt like a product of the same pop culture era that gave us prestige TV such as Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones has become prestige TV.

Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin's faithful HBO adaptation of the former's acclaimed video game follows Joel (Pedro Pescal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they make ...

Aside from setting the show’s stakes, the opener also discourages the audience from seeing “The Last of Us” as purely a pandemic allegory. “The Last of Us” isn’t as wild; there’s no sudden departure to The Purgatory Hotel. “The Last of Us” isn’t about how to survive, but why we survive — each of us and all of us — and how it evolves that conversation makes any accompanying anguish worth enduring. “The Last of Us” premieres Sunday, January 15 at 9 p.m. With his partner-in-crime, Tess (Anna Torv, of “Mindhunter” fame), Joel and Ellie try to make their way forward, together: Joel, for his brother, and Ellie, for the rest of us. But to relegate “The Last of Us” to any predetermined genre, any preset box, or any fixed period of time is to do a disservice to the weighty and widely applicable themes wrestled with throughout. Crafted with meticulous attention to detail (and closely following the games’ story), “The Last of Us” subtly distinguishes itself from whatever presumptions viewers may bring to it. “The Last of Us” is bound to put off a sizable portion of viewers, simply because the questions it poses are difficult and the answers given are honest. If she can make it to a proper team of scientists, the Fireflies believe they can study her DNA and develop a cure to the fungal infections. Joel doesn’t approve — what’s the point of a rebellion when the whole world is doomed to die? The new drama is better than every video game adaptation that comes to mind (sorry “Resident Evil”), and it is a top-tier, often terrifying zombie adventure (sorry again “Resident Evil”). Another critic or influencer or what not has likely ranked it among the “best zombie shows,” or at least a timely successor to “The Walking Dead,” which just ended a few months ago.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey star HBO's 'The Last of Us,' Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's adaptation of the post-apocalyptic video game series.

The third episode is what elevates The Last of Us from a horror romp to something on the verge of truly special. Though I wouldn’t have wanted much more padding, a tiny bit of additional breathing room could have let The Last of Us achieve additional profundity in its commentary on The Way We’re Living Now, beyond what is a sincere if superficial take on darkness and light within human nature. At the same time, there’s a structural sameness that saps the sense of anything-can-happen surprise. That second episode brings us our first meaningful exposure, so to speak, to the infected, the series’ version of zombies. The second episode, with Druckmann taking the directing reins, shifts the series into gear with the introduction of the Ellie/Joel relationship that isn’t just the series’ heart; it’s the series. The gruff, reluctant protector and spunky last-hope-for-humanity child dynamic is every bit as familiar as anything in the pilot, but it’s rarely been captured as lovingly and lovably as it is by Pascal — able to show his face for this version of Mando and Baby Yoda — and especially Ramsey, who audiences will remember as Lyanna Mormont, saving grace of later Game of Thrones seasons. The Last of Us pilot, also directed by Mazin, isn’t bad, but it’s too familiar for an 81-minute running time to sustain. Adapted by Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) with game creator Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us begins with a 1960s TV panel show warning about the dangers of an evolved global fungal infection before jumping to 2003, where everything is normal for Texas contractor Joel (Pedro Pascal), his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) and her brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna). Ellie’s immunity could offer hope for humanity, but only if Joel and Tess can get her to a facility across the country — no easy feat since, as every post-apocalyptic drama ever made has attempted to emphasize, as bad as whatever wiped out most of humanity already was, people in extremis can be far worse. At the same time, it undersells just how very good The Last of Us is, simply as a TV show — albeit one existing fans will recognize as closely, at times shot-for-shot and line-for-line, linked to its Naughty Dog source material. I don’t want to say that after you’ve seen one ivy-covered city in ruins, one cracking freeway littered with shells of cars, or one undertrained military peon threatening one starving group of stragglers with death if they take one step forward that you’ve seen them all. Joel has become something of an outlaw, smuggling with partner Tess (an initially unrecognizable Anna Torv), looking out mostly for himself.

Rending the gameplay out of a game that's fleshed out by televisual tropes, the series ends up as mostly just the latter. by Pat Brown. January 10, 2023.

The underwhelming confrontations with the zombies may be one crucial aspect of why this adaptation fails to accomplish the dramatic heights that the game did. The result is a series that not only often runs like a compilation of extended versions of the game’s cutscenes, but is also almost assertively middlebrow. Take the fifth episode, in which Joel and Ellie confront a cult of personality led by would-be authoritarian Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey) in Kansas City. In the second episode of the season, after the initial job to hand Ellie over to the Fireflies on the outskirts of Boston goes belly-up, he resolves to help her find her way to a medical facility in Utah. Many stretches of the game that staged memorable battles with hordes of zombies—like Elie and Joel’s run-in with Joel’s smuggling contact, Bill (Nick Offerman), outside of Boston—are reconceptualized in the terms of prestige television. The journey there becomes a tour of the various mini-dystopias that have sprung up in the two decades since society collapsed.

The post-apocalyptic drama series stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Joel and Ellie, an unlikely duo traversing an ...

I can no longer look at some characters from the game without recalling their more expansive arcs in the show, and I think that's both a commendation for the show and a benefit to the property as a whole. The show is brought to life by a cast and crew that seems hellbent on living up to its name and their own already-glowing reputations. Ramsey, to their credit, similarly captures Ellie's vulgar defiance and sarcasm in a way that often becomes the comic relief on the show even as, like the game, comic relief is a rare thing to witness. It stands proudly as one of the best video game adaptations ever, and a clear signal that PlayStation is right to pursue a future where its already reputable video games are reborn on TV. But it does feel like a vital expansion of a fictional universe I love so much, and if it's given room to grow and tell the whole story, I could see it reaching the top tier of HBO shows in time. A strictly faithful series would feel limited, and perhaps only best enjoyed by those who have no prior experience with the game, but these additions to the story make The Last of Us feel like it's found the best-case scenario, where the adaptation is both faithful and reimagined in smart ways. Sometimes they're fun alterations made to surprise familiar viewers in an otherwise faithful scene, but the crowning achievements of The Last of Us on HBO come whenever the story pivots to spend extended time with characters who aren't Ellie and Joel. Often, the TV series delivers a scene that is nearly a shot-for-shot replica of the game, from the dialogue to even the cadence of its delivery. Players of a AAA action-adventure game sometimes don't expect or even want a long, slow ramp-up with characters who aren't the focus of the game or serve another gameplay function. The pair sets off on what is initially pitched as a cargo run, with the 14-year-old Ellie being the so-called cargo, and focuses on their relationship, as well as that of others they meet along the way. Was it beneficial to be so faithful, and thus largely predictable, to the millions who have played the game already? The Last of Us on HBO, co-run by Chernobyl's Craig Mazin and the game series' own Neil Druckmann, is a marvelous proof of concept for PlayStation--and really any brand seeking to bring its beloved games to prestige television.

One of the most cinematic games of all time is Sony and Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us," which launched in 2013 and became an instant critical and commercial hit ...

In many ways, it's a perfect story for where we are in 2023, picking up the pieces of the last few years and finding what's important to us again. I wanted a little more building, and the show rushes the final two episodes in a way that made me wonder if that's where most of the compression happened when it lost a chapter from the initial ten episodes that Mazin said would happen back in July 2021. In terms of storytelling and design, the show will be very familiar to gamers, almost too much at times. After a chilling prologue in which an expert on a talk show offers his belief that the world-ending pandemic will be fungal and not viral, "The Last of Us" opens properly in 2003, hours before society's collapse. [Pedro Pascal](/cast-and-crew/pedro-pascal)), an Austin-based contractor, and his brother Tommy ( [Gabriel Luna](/cast-and-crew/gabriel-luna)). It's a fascinating deconstruction of the game that leans on character and storytelling instead of action, and it does so in a way that's confidently grounded.

A review of the HBO series The Last of Us, based on the video game and starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

But the series reminds us why postapocalyptic stories continue to invade our psyches: They remind us of the value of being alive and how terrifying it would be to stand among the few who still are. Like the dystopian prestige dramas The Leftovers and Station Eleven, The Last of Us is driven less by raw plot than by its study of relationships. Even if The Last of Us treads familiar ground, it is still a gripping and ambitious work that seems fated to become the premium cable network’s next Twitter-trending hit. The other lies in translating the inherently interactive experience of a game into something that feels unique to television. [reportedly exceeding](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/01/02/can-the-last-of-us-break-the-curse-of-bad-video-game-adaptations) each of the first five seasons of Game of Thrones, The Last of Us is punctuated by intense action sequences and elaborately rendered practical and visual effects. The nine-episode first season, which debuts on Sunday night, focuses on Joel (Pedro Pascal), a man who lost his daughter when the pandemic began in 2003, and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a teenager whose immunity to the fungus could be instrumental in finding a cure in 2023.

Writer Craig Mazin, Pedro Pascal and the rest of the cast reveal how the TV series expands the universe of the game while maintaining its powerful emotional ...

[in a companion podcast](https://listen.hbo.com/the-last-of-us-podcast?c=SMTUzoX5QN_06l-iR1z0HA&h=51504b5794522e818) that'll go behind the scenes of the show, HBO said Monday, with podcast episodes dropping each Sunday. "Ellie is aware that there's something up with this guy -- there's more to him, he's not just a grumpy asshole for the sake of it," the actor said. "It's amazing to step into an adaptation of a beloved source material that has such an emotional human story at the center of it, to make it all the more painful. "He desires what his brother has at the beginning, which is family -- to plant a seed and watch it grow," Luna told me over video chat. [Mazin](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0563301/) applied that same curiosity to [a real-life disaster](/science/chernobyl-miniseries-by-hbo-and-sky-prompts-searches-on-nuclear-explosion-fission/) when he created [2019's acclaimed HBO miniseries Chernobyl](/culture/entertainment/hbo-chernobyl-miniseries-was-bleak-grotesque-and-absolutely-necessary/). "I absolutely did revisit the preparation. [HBO TV series The Last of Us](/culture/entertainment/the-last-of-us-review-the-greatest-video-game-adaptation-ever-made/) isn't the Clickers, Bloaters or any of the other horrors of [the legendary Sony PlayStation game](/tech/gaming/the-last-of-us-part-1-is-a-expensive-way-to-revisit-naughty-dog-masterpiece/) the series is based on. "Practically speaking, it didn't change much other than giving us a slightly different palette of props, set design and car choice. It's something, unfortunately, so many of us can relate to," Pascal told me on Zoom. Because the game took place the year it came out, Mazin and Druckmann agreed that the chronological repositioning made sense since it didn't fundamentally change the story. I thought it might be interesting to just say, 'Hey, look, in this parallel universe, this is happening right now.' So it was really just about helping people connect a little bit more," Mazin said. [HBO Max](https://hbomax.prf.hn/click/camref:1011lqSFd/pubref:cn-___COM_CLICK_ID___-dtp___OPTOUT___/destination:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2F).

The HBO adaptation is well versed in the bleak clichés of the zombie genre, but it also offers something unexpected: empathy.

This is no ordinary grab bag of jump scares and grisly kills: The Last of Us respects its genre but works to defy its creakiest tropes. The Last of Us works hard to present a more sanguine view, including through Joel and Ellie’s deep bond—although franchise fans know that that connection will eventually grow complicated. This is especially true in the third episode, a mostly self-contained work that focuses on one of Joel’s survivalist allies, Bill (Nick Offerman), and his relationship with another survivalist named Frank (Murray Bartlett). Plenty of plot details in The Last of Us might feel conventional, but the show still offers a rich genre stew, with the kind of high-budget flavor that sets tentpole HBO productions apart from their straight-to-streaming counterparts. But what made The Last of Us even more immersive was how [it implicates players](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/07/the-last-of-us-limits-video-game-violence/613696/) in the lead character’s own morally dubious actions. [comes up](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2022/02/uncharted-video-game-movie-review/622815/) again and again as the medium grows in ambition: How do you translate a game that was itself clearly inspired by film and television?

Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann co-created HBO's new drama "The Last of Us," starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

But for all that the fall was not the fault of humanity in this telling of our demise, I hope, in seasons to come, to see still more of the world beyond our heroes’ relationship. (The Bartlett episode in particular makes a strong case for itself as a successor of sorts to “Black Mirror” at its best. That we come to understand them as well as we do without this layer of detail — indeed, with the show seeming eventually to be rushing away from its protagonists — is an achievement. Adapted from the popular video game of the same title by “Chernobyl’s” [Craig Mazin](https://variety.com/t/craig-mazin/) and the game’s designer, Neil Druckmann, “The Last of Us” can lean too hard on action sequences, which emphasizes the uncanny surreality of the infected. [Pedro Pascal](https://variety.com/t/pedro-pascal/)) that buoys “The Last of Us” through its run. Here, as in “Chernobyl,” we watch as characters slowly, then all at once, come into awareness that the world around them is falling apart.

Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us. The Last of Us, HBO's TV adaptation of the bestselling 2013 video game of the same name ...

How much of that is a testament to the expert handling of the adaptation, or to the loving construction of the original game? The third episode of The Last of Us fleshes out the story of Bill (Nick Offerman, in a fantastic subversion of his own typecasting), a gruff, no-bullshit doomsday prepper (or survivalist, depending on who you ask). As for adapting The Last of Us, Druckmann was similarly reluctant to lose the core narrative of his game. But my favorite part of the show did turn out to be a new addition to the canonical story of the game. Their relationship is the narrative heart of the game, as well as the series. The Last of Us is very, very good. When he was building the original game, he insisted on a single narrative for The Last of Us, in stark contrast to the gaming world’s affection for “open world” formats, where players can roam where they choose. He received pressure from his bosses to turn the epic, bloody finale of The Last of Us into a choice between two endings, but he maintained that Joel’s character development made a dark, climactic turn inevitable. [widespread](https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/05/the-last-of-us-review) [critical](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/jun/05/the-last-of-us-ps3-video-game-review) [acclaim](https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/06/13/the-last-of-us-review-this-is-the-end-beautiful-friend-ps3/?sh=2f433c462639) bordering on reverence for his attention to the craft of storytelling. The Last of Us is set in a postapocalyptic world in which a fungal pandemic turns infected people into zombies. Warcraft, the highest-grossing film adaptation of a video game since 2016, boasts nearly $440 million in box office revenue but didn’t even break even because of marketing and distribution costs. The pressure is on: The series is contending with the scrutiny of devoted fans; the shadow of a film adaptation shelved in 2016, and Hollywood’s decadeslong history of turning beloved video games into shows and movies that range from dull to embarrassing.

As a gamer (and an editor at The Washington Post's video game vertical), I'm familiar with the premise and even some pivotal plot points of the games, though I ...

There’s the original PlayStation 3 game, a remastered version for PlayStation 4 titled “The Last of Us Remastered” and If you want to play “The Last of Us,” you’ve got a few options — and one more coming in March, if you’re willing to wait. The game’s 2020 sequel, “The Last of Us Part II,” explores the fallout from decisions made in the original game; the TV show’s first season follows the plot of the first game. Still, having watched a few episodes of the show, there’s no indication that playing the series is an important prerequisite to enjoy the HBO adaptation. In “The Last of Us” (both the game and the show) a fungal infection ravages the world, taking over human hosts and turning them into unusually floral zombies. For those interested in the new prestige drama, but maybe less interested in video games, there’s good news: You don’t need to play the games to understand the show.

HBO's new post-apocalyptic series is based on a video game with tens of millions of fans. For them and for newcomers, here's what to expect.

The game has been lauded for its diversity of characters in a medium often dominated by macho male protagonists, and that hasn’t been lost in translation. Without the action-first requirements of a video game, Druckmann and Mazin seem freed to deepen the dominant themes. Early signs suggest the answer is “very,” with the show including most of the major characters and plot points. The big question for fans of the video game is, how faithful will the series be to its source material? [announced](https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/06/screen-gems-to-distribute-sam-raimi-produced-the-last-of-us-movie) that it would be distributing a Sam Raimi-produced film version of the game, with Kaitlyn Dever and the “Game of Thrones” star Maisie Williams as early contenders to play the female lead. Fans of the game series will also recognize the brothers Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Sam (Keivonn Woodard); Ellie’s former ally Riley (Storm Reid); and the malevolent David (Scott Shepherd), a cult leader with dark secrets of his own.

Pedro Pascal as Joel · Bella Ramsey as Ellie · Anna Torv as Tess · Gabriel Luna as Tommy · Merle Dandridge as Marlene · Nick Offerman as Bill · Murray Bartlett as ...

Riley mainly appeared in the downloadable content pack The Last of Us: Left Behind and in the comic book miniseries The Last of Us: American Dreams, though she is also mentioned in the original video game. He's portrayed by Lamar Johnson, a Canadian actor and dancer who broke throughs on the Canadian teen drama The Next Step and more recently in the film The Hate U Give and on the Showtime drama Your Honor. She's starred in films like Up in the Air and The Informant!, and on TV shows like Two and a Half Men and Mrs. She's played by Merle Dandridge, who voiced the character in the video game and is the only main cast member to be reprising their original role from the game. She's played by Storm Reid, an actress best known for her role as Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time and as Gia Bennett on HBO's Euphoria. This is her first time back on HBO since starring in the dramedy series Togetherness from 2015 to 16. Marlene is the leader of the Fireflies, a revolutionary group determined to take down Fedra, the fascistic militarized ruling authority that has asserted itself in the post-infection times. Kathleen is an original character created for the TV series with no analogue in the video game. The ruthless leader of a group of revolutionaries operating in Kansas City, she’s be played by Emmy nominee Melanie Lynskey, whose Showtime series Yellowjackets is set to premiere only a couple months after she makes her The Last of Us debut. Additionally, the series will feature performances from Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Anthony Pierce, who voiced the roles of Joel, Ellie, and Tommy, respectively, in the original video game. She's playing the role of Ellie, the enigmatic 14-year-old girl who Joel must shepherd across the country because she may be the key to saving humanity. The word "harrowing" is used in just about every commentary about the game, so this should be a gripping good time.

Here's what we know about The Last of Us episode release schedule on HBO. Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal). Source: HBO. Yes ...

The Last of Us Season 1, Episode 1 premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, Jan. Don't miss Pedro being a doting fatherly figure to a kid in need in another show while we all wait for The Mandalorian Season 3 to premiere! However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the first season will be the last. That means that one new episode will premiere each week on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Per the official [Pedro Pascal](https://www.distractify.com/p/pedro-pascal-wife) is finally back on our TV screens, and yes, we can actually see more of his face this time around.

Hollywood has mostly failed to adapt successful video games into satisfying series and films. In an interview, the creators of this new zombie thriller ...

That’s kind of how it works with Joel and Ellie, and that’s kind of how I think it’s going to work with the part of the audience that, like you and like me, has such an attachment to the Ellie that Neil and Ashley created in the game. In “The Last of Us” — or really any game where you’re playing somebody that has guns, and you’re fighting against other people that have guns — you’re going to get shot. Unlike a live actress, who you realize is a person and might see in other things, you don’t see Ellie anywhere else, so she almost seems to belong to the story. [Chernobyl](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/arts/television/emmy-awards-live-updates.html),” the Emmy-award winning mini-series, while Druckmann and his studio, [Naughty Dog](https://www.naughtydog.com/), are considered the benchmarks for narrative storytelling in games — fans are hoping “The Last of Us” will be different. In the game we have long action sequences to get you into a flow state, which gets you to better connect with the character — you see yourself as that character. Here’s the bad reason: Somebody in a room who doesn’t know anything about playing video games looks at a PDF of how many copies are sold, and they go, “Well, let’s just do that. DRUCKMANN The most important thing was to keep the soul of it, what it’s about: these relationships. Their journey across the United States, past zombies and cannibals, raises questions about the limits of love and the atrocities a parent will commit in the name of protecting a child. “The Last of Us,” for instance, is less about the actual outbreak than the father-daughter relationship between a smuggler named Joel (played by A decade later, an HBO series based on the game is set to be released, [on Sunday](https://www.hbomax.com/series/the-last-of-us), to a public that has grown all too familiar with the possibility of a germ apocalypse. So we get that out of the way pretty quickly.” After one of them describes something like Covid-19, the other silences both the fictional crowd and us when he expounds upon the ways in which a warmed-up planet could lead to something much, much worse.