HBO's The Last of Us won't feature storylines outside the original video games.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creators, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, discussed not dragging The Last of Us series adaptation on longer than the source material, like HBO's previous blunder with George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. "We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games," Druckmann said. "We won't run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn't end on a cliffhanger."
Mazin added that he has no interest in turning The Last of Us into a "perpetual motion machine" with the same plot of changing locations to survive the zombie outbreak every season. "I don't have any interest in a spinning-plates-go-on-forever show," he said. "Endings mean everything to me." Season 1 of the HBO series adapts the 2013 game The Last of Us storyline, while Druckmann and Mazin suggest that Season 2 will follow the 2020 sequel.
New The Last of Us Material
Despite The Last of Us series allegedly hewing close to the original source, the HBO show will feature content that didn't make it into the video games. Druckmann revealed that the never-before-seen material would include the "enrichment" of several characters. Furthermore, Mazin added that particular surprises throughout viewers' watch-throughs would "blow their minds" if they played the Last of Us game catalog. It's unclear how much fresh content will appear in the upcoming series considering each episode of The Last of Us clocks in at around 90 minutes.
On Dec. 14, a recent leak suggested Naughty Dog may be working on a third mainline installment in The Last of Us franchise. Following the rumor of an alleged The Last of Us Part III, Druckmann warned his followers not to believe certain "insider" information because "much of it is false." Despite seemingly denying the leak, the game creator still teased the possibility of another entry in the post-apocalyptic video game series. "I think there's more story to tell," Druckmann said.
HBO's The Last of Us includes dominant names in the industry, like The Mandalorian's Pedro Pascal as Joel, the game's protagonist, and Parks and Recreation's Nick Offerman as a survivalist named Bill. Additionally, Game of Thrones' Bella Ramsey portrays Ellie, a 14-year-old immune to the Cordyceps infection. As for the actors from the video games returning, Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, Merle Dandridge and Jeffrey Pierce make up the show's cast. While Dandridge reprises her role as Marlene, the others won't play their original characters.
The Last of Us premieres Jan. 15, 2023, on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: THR