If you’re familiar with The Last of Us, the brutality is often a selling point. The games are pretty violent, but it’s all in service to the story and often ups the emotional weight. But for many, it’s a bit gratuitous at times. That’s why the creators behind HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us are looking at how to handle violence in the future.
Speaking to SFX Magazine, series co-creator and Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann opened up about what was needed to make the HBO series work regarding the game’s often violent moments.
Druckmann tells the outlet, “We need a certain amount of action, or violence, that we could use for mechanics so you could connect with Joel and get into a flow state. Then you would really feel like you’re connected with this on-screen avatar, and you’re seeing the world through his eyes. But that doesn’t exist in a passive medium.”
“One of the things that I loved hearing from [co-creator Craig Mazin] and HBO very early on was, ‘Let’s take out all the violence except for the very essential,’” he continues. “That allowed the violence to have even more impact than in the game because when you hold on showing the threat and you’re seeing people’s reaction to a threat, that makes it scarier. And when we do reveal the infected and the Clickers, you get to see what brought down humanity and why everyone is so scared.”
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HBO’s The Last of Us is set to premiere in January, and the first episode will reportedly run 85 minutes.
The Last of Us story 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 the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as Joel and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Ellie alongside Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, Jeffrey Pierce, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Lamar Johnson, Storm Reid, Keivonn Woodard, Graham Greene and Elaine Miles.
The Last of Us will premiere on January 15th, 2023.
