Since HBO announced in 2020 that video games The Last of Us would be adapted in series, the fans of the first hour are on the job! This moving road trip through the ruins of humanity seems to be perfect for the small screen. Pedro Pascal (Andor, The Mandolorian) and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones, His Dark Materials) seem to be the ideal duo of actors to embody Joel and Ellie, the two main protagonists. We could read the concern of fans on social networks when we only learned on Thursday that the series expected this Sunday on HBO Max would be broadcast in US + 24 each week from this Monday in France on Amazon Prime Video, as a gift to its subscribers while waiting for the arrival of the entire HBO catalog. If you don’t know the game or don’t understand the hype around The Last of Ushere are some elements to understand what it is and measure the magnitude of the event.
An event series for HBO
“I don’t think the folks at HBO were necessarily into gaming, but it only took them 20 Minutes on Google to realize that The Last of Us is the Lawrence of Arabia of video game storytelling. series creator Craig Mazin said in an interview with Indie Wire.
After House of the Dragonthe spin-off of Game Of Thrones, The Last of Us is the next big HBO event series that has invested, according to information from the American magazine The New Yorkera pharaonic envelope that exceeds 100 million dollars in the first season of The Last of Usmore than that assigned to the first five seasons of Game Of Thrones !
A videogame card
If HBO is betting so much on this project, it’s because The Last of Us is true a video game card. Critically acclaimed – the game is called a masterpiece – and gamers, The Last of Us, released in 2013 on Playsation 3, and its sequel, released in 2020 on Playstation 4, developed by the Naughty Dog studio, have sold more than 30 million copies. A remake of the game, titled The Last of Us Part Iwas released on September 2, 2022 on PlayStation 5, and is expected on March 3, 2023 on Microsoft Windows.
A post-apocalyptic world
The idea for the game originated in the imagination of Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley, after seeing a BBC documentary series which showed an ant infected with the cordycepsa dangerous parasitic fungus.
The plot of the game The Last of Us takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of our world, a few years after a pandemic caused by a fungus called cordyceps hit the Earth and turned humans into “infected”, zombies in effect.
A duo of endearing heroes
The strength of the game lies in its two believable and endearing main characters, Joel, a 50-year-old hardened by hardship and physically scarred by pain, and Ellie, a young teenager who has only ever lived in a quarantine zone and marvel at nothing. Joel is hired to rescue 14-year-old Ellie from an oppressive quarantine zone in hopes of finding a cure for the evil ravaging the planet.
A shooting game that leaves room for emotion
What begins as a simple job as a smuggler quickly becomes a harrowing journey through the ruined United States. As their journey and encounters with other survivors progress, these two beings separated by everything will gradually bond and depend on each other for their survival.
This shooting game where the player controls Joel obeys the codes of the genre survival horror while leaving a lot of room for emotion, all served by the sublime soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla, winner of two Oscars for best film music.
Breathtaking graphics
The other asset of the game is the richness of its graphics, from the dark basements of the subway under water to the rural villages, passing by the interiors strewn with debris of the abandoned houses.
A creative team at the top
Neil Druckmann, the game’s director and screenwriter, tried to make a film adaptation with horror master Sam Raimi, but the project fell through due to differences with the studio. He finds himself at the helm of the series with another regular in post-apocalyptic settings, Craig Mazin, to whom we owe the moving series Chernobyl.
On screen, alongside Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, Melanie Lynskey, the star of YellowjacketsMurray Bartlett, the hotel manager extraordinaire from season 1 of The White Lotusand Nick Offerman, the unforgettable Ron Swanson in the series Parks and Recreation.
A series that holds surprises
Neil Druckmann indicated that the first season of The Last of Us would basically cover the plot of the first video game… But the series The Last of Us has some surprises in store for fans of the first hour: the chronology will be modified, elements deleted or added, including in particular the promise to have details as to the contamination process linked to the fungal virus known in the games. Verdict this Monday on Amazon Prime Video.