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The Last of Us HBO Series First Season Adapts the First Game

The Last of Us HBO Series First Season Adapts the First Game - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 22 March 2021 / 1,703 Views

It was announced in February that the two main protagonists in the HBO TV series based on the hit video game series, The Last of Us, have been cast. The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal has been cast to play Joel and Bella Ramey, best known for her role as Lyanna Mormont in HBO's Game of Thrones, has been cast as Ellie. 

The Last of Us game director and show executive producer Neil Druckmann in an interview with IGN revealed the first season of the show will adapt the first game in the franchise. However, some episodes will "deviate greatly" due to the game and HBO series being in a different medium. 

"We talked at length that season 1 of the show is going to be [the first game]," said Druckmann. "As far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt? They might or might not appear in it, that’s way less important to us than getting the core of who these people are and the core of their journey.

The Last of Us HBO Series First Season Adapts the First Game

"Things sometimes stay pretty close. It’s funny to see my dialogue there from the games in HBO scripts. And sometimes they deviate greatly to much better effect because we are dealing with a different medium.

"For example, in the game, there’s so much action you have to have to train the player about mechanics. You have to have more violence and more spectacle to some degree than you would need on a TV show because you don’t need to train people on how to use a gun. So that’s something that’s been really different, and HBO’s been great in pushing us to move away from hardcore action and focus more on the drama of the character. Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them."

The Last of Us video game franchise has been a huge hit for Sony with the series selling over 24 million units worldwide. The first entry in the series released in 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and was later remastered for the PlayStation 4, while the sequel launched for the PS4 in June 2020.


A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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5 Comments
Dante9 (on 23 March 2021)

I don't think anyone was expecting a carbon copy of the actual game. Sounds good, as long as all the important story points are there. And some nice acting to go with that, Troy and Ashley are excellent in the original roles and very tough to match.

  • +3
DonFerrari (on 22 March 2021)

I'm excited for it.

  • +2
KratosLives (on 23 March 2021)

i feel like such themes have been touched upon in the walking dead series. I really hope they give us something fresh here.

  • +1
LivncA_Dis3 (on 23 March 2021)

they will make an exemplary series just like the witcha!

  • +1
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