Bringing one of the most beloved video games of all time to TV is scarier than any infected you could encounter, but HBO's hit series shows exactly how to do it [SPOILERS AHEAD]
There may not be a game more beloved than 2013’s The Last of Us. The story of a grizzled father opening up his heart to a young girl trying not to end up alone, all set during an infected apocalypse, has captivated millions for a decade. It’s a game near and dear to my heart that I only got into a few years ago, but wish I had it all my life.
For years, creator Neil Druckmann had been trying to adapt it in live action to no success. It seemed impossible to bring the cherished story to life in any way that would even compare to the game’s beautiful story. That was until he met with writer and fan of the game Craig Mazin, whose passion project was to turn this game into a TV series.
While the years of the “video game adaptation curse” are long behind us, there was still a lot of pressure riding on this. A revered story like The Last of Us’ needed to be handled with love and care to not alienate longtime gamers while also being something a new audience could enjoy. When the series premiered earlier this year, all of our worries were put to rest. Druckmann and Mazin managed to make something special that may have even surpassed the story of the original game.
HBO’s masterful adaptation of the game has blown away all of my highest expectations to become one of my favorite seasons of television ever. It’s incredibly faithful while managing to differentiate itself enough from the original game so that fans of the game can still get something new out of it. The series should serve as a lesson for future creatives on how to properly adapt a video game to live action.
When adapting anything, the most important thing you can do is be passionate about what you’re making. If you don’t care for the source material, your project is doomed to fail. When it came to HBO’s The Last of Us, putting the live-action series in the hands of Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann was the smartest thing you could do. As the original creator of the game, you aren’t going to find someone who knows it better than Neil. He can make sure that the story is faithful to the original and maintains the core themes of love and loss. I don’t think there’s anyone better to run the show than Mazin. Not only is he a massive fan of the game, but one of the smartest working writers today. He understands the fundamental differences between video game and television storytelling. That knowledge brings a new perspective to the story as he retells it in an interesting and exciting way.
If you were to make a shot-for-shot remake of the game in live-action it wouldn’t work. When you’re playing a video game, it’s a lot easier to be immersed since you are in control of what happens. To not break that immersion, they can’t have cutscenes running too long and there needs to be lots and lots of gameplay to keep you interested. The video game medium is all about interaction and playing things at your own pace. When working on TV you don’t have those limitations. Viewers tune in to watch something play out on an episodic basis.
The difference in mediums is key to adapting one from the other which is something that Mazin understands. You have to change the way the story unfolds since you’re watching it play out instead of managing the balance between the player’s control and the linear narrative. When you take out the gameplay, you also have a lot more time to work with. Since you don’t have the restrictions of combat and control to keep a player invested, you can devote more time to emotional action. That is a kind of drama and storytelling that is just as compelling as physical action, just that you’re using character moments instead. It’s a smart way to use the medium and focus on the story rather than just doing gameplay for the sake of it being in the game. This extra time on TV also allows you to make changes and expand on the game to deepen and enrich it.
A lot of the time we’ll see studios change what they’re adapting in spite of the original version or because they don’t understand why it works. Changing the source material is necessary to make something that stands out and fits the medium, but it has to be done right. In HBO’s The Last of Us, nearly every change made is done to enhance and make the story better. Whether it be an expansion of the game, a complete change, or an all-new addition, it’s all been done in an attempt to improve the narrative they’re telling.
Given that they have much more time to focus on just a story with a TV show, they can further develop the characters and plot lines to make us resonate with them even more. One of the biggest ways they’ve done that is by showing us more of Joel’s emotional state after losing Sarah. This isn’t something that the game was lacking in any way, but the series gets to showcase it in much more detail. After Sarah died in his arms, we cut to 20 years later and see Joel holding a young girl’s dead body the same way he held Sarah as he throws her into a fire without hesitation. There are also scenes of Joel having full-on panic attacks when seeing someone who reminded him of Sarah or tearfully confessing to Tommy his deepest fear of failing again with Ellie. Being able to see more of Joel’s mental state enhances everything about the story and especially his relationship with Ellie. With the added knowledge of what he’s going through, it’s even more apparent how important Ellie is to completing his broken heart.
Another example of an expansion in the series comes with Sam and Henry. Druckmann and Mazin get to dive much deeper into their backstory to make their fates hit even harder and foreshadow the future. In the game, Joel and Ellie run into the two brothers as nothing more than just another pair of survivors. We get some info on their past, but it isn’t much more than surface-level stuff. With the extra time the series brings, they completely recontextualize their backstory. Now Henry is the most wanted man in Kanas City with a history that reflects Joel’s own. Henry is willing to do whatever it takes to protect his deaf younger brother. After Sam got sick one day, Henry sold out his friend and leader of the resistance to secure the medicine he needed. In a story about love and what it does to people, Henry holds up a mirror to Joel. We can see what it looks like when someone is willing to do anything to protect those they care about. Where Henry differs from Joel though is in how he handles losing that loved one. When Joel lost Sarah, he cut himself off emotionally. When Henry is forced to kill Sam, the grief is too much for him and he offs himself too. It’s a very memorable and tragic part of the game, but the show makes it work even better with the added context as a cautionary tale to Joel.
The series also takes creative liberties to change things for this version of the story they’re telling. With a team that loves the games, each decision is carefully made to make things better. One of the most important scenes in the entire game comes toward the end as Ellie and David brawl in the burning resort. As Ellie violently lashes out at David she is pulled away by Joel. He saves her from the burning wreckage and herself before she loses herself in her aggression. It’s one of the more notable moments from the game and an important part to get right. The series keeps everything the same except for one small change: Joel doesn’t physically save Ellie. We see her indulge in her violent revenge against David until she’s satisfied. Things end on her terms and we get to see a side of Ellie that’s been hidden away. Then after she makes it out of the building, we get the Joel scene where this time he saves her emotionally. It’s a small change that does wonders for the two characters’ bond and makes a world of difference.
Without question, the best change in the series is Bill and Frank. Their story is a drastic change from that of the game and it creates one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen. In the game, their history serves as a different kind of cautionary tale for Joel. Bill is supposed to represent to Joel what it looks like when you completely cut yourself off from attachments. He ends up a paranoid, bitter, and lonely man who drove away the only person he ever cared about. In an extremely bold move, they gave Bill and Frank an entirely different fate and impression for Joel. While the world of The Last of Us may be bleak and tragic, Mazin wanted to show that you can still love and live a full life. Bill and Frank get to grow old together and find true happiness. It wasn’t a tragic ending for them, but a satisfied life well lived together. The world isn’t all doom and gloom and it was important for Joel to see how good things can be if you open up to people. Bill makes it very clear in an emotional note to Joel that pushes him towards being a better father figure instead of making him fear the person he was.
"I used to hate the world and I was happy when everyone died," Bill writes. "But I was wrong. Because there was one person worth saving. That's what I did: I saved him. And I protected him. That's why men like you and me are here: We have a job to do.”
To make the series stand on its own, Druckmann and Mazin would go even further and create new stories and characters that weren’t in the original game. This only further develops the world and our understanding of it, and in some cases, makes the story even more terrifying. From the moment the first episode starts, we’re greeted with an unfamiliar and haunting flashback to set the tone for the season. A talk show from 1968 explains what cordyceps are and how they operate. While it sets the stage for the fungus to take over, the fear comes with the reality it’s based in. The idea that climate change, a very real issue we’re currently not doing enough to prevent, could cause cordyceps to evolve and be able to survive a human’s internal body temperature is horrifying. The added context and real-world implications are scary to think about which makes the events of the show even more frightening. It’s a perfect addition and one that sends chills down your spine in a way that a zombie never could. The simple conclusion that “we lose” if this ever happens is something I’m going to be thinking about for a long time.
In The Last of Us’ depressing post-apocalyptic world, a huge theme of the game is that there are no good or bad people - just survivors. To reinforce this idea, the character of Kathleen was created for the show. With the military dictatorship of FEDRA recently falling in Kansas City, Kathleen fills the role of the ruthless resistance leader. The resistance is not an evil group, but they are willing to do anything it takes to be free from FEDRA’s oppression. Her character answers important questions that the game didn’t get to tackle like "why are they enemies?” and “what do they want?." They aren’t just attacking the player because you need NPCs to gun down, but because of her complex relationship with Henry after his collaboration lead to her brother’s death. Actress Melanie Lynskey gives a chilling performance as Kathleen too. A spoft-soken and kind woman until you get on her nerves and then we see how cruel she can be. Her quest for vengeance against Henry shows Joel and Ellie how it consumes you and should serve as a lesson for their futures. That new dynamic adds a lot to the moral ambiguity of the story and continues to make you question every action in this world.
Just as important as the story is the cast. With the emotional rollercoaster the narrative puts you on, you need someone who can do it justice and make it feel real. I truly don’t believe that you could have cast anyone better than Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie.
The character of Joel is one of the most complex in any video game. He’s completely closed himself off from forming attachments to other people, but still yearns for that second chance with his daughter. Pedro Pascal is my favorite actor so I may be a little biased here, but his range is practically limitless. The subtlety in his facial expressions can show you an entire world of emotion. You can feel the pain in his voice when he delivers a line or watch it fade away when he’s with Ellie. Anytime I looked at him, he was only ever Joel. Pedro embodies all of Joel’s callousness and anxiety while also making that shift to love and protection seamlessly. The show wouldn’t land as well as it did with any other actor in that role.
Bella Ramsey had an extremely tough job to portray Ellie, but they managed to surpass my highest expectations. Ellie’s character is fun and outgoing on the surface, but there is a lot of repressed anger and fear inside of her. While she may bring a lot of levity to the show, the moments when she gets serious and shows her vicious side need to be perfect to land. Bella is insanely talented for their age and it would be a crime if they weren’t recognized for that. They managed to depict a version of Ellie that was familiar all while putting their own spin on her. Whether it be talking about her fears or violently lashing out, I couldn’t imagine anyone but Bella else as Ellie.
HBO’s first season of The Last of Us is a masterpiece that everyone who had a hand in bringing to life should be proud of. Showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have created something special that manages to both be a faithful adaptation of the source material and stand alone for anyone to enjoy. I hope that anyone looking to adapt a video game in the future looks to this show and learns some important lessons on doing it justice. Making changes to better the story and medium, focusing on emotional action, assembling a killer cast, and most importantly having passionate creatives on board should all be kept in mind when doing something like this. The series represents a landmark achievement in video game adaptions and makes me excited for the future of the genre. I wish I could do it justice and properly convey how incredible this is, but instead, I’m just gonna go and rewatch it over and over again.
Until the next time, endure and survive.
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