When it comes to onscreen adaptations, we’re in “a video game renaissance.” At least, that’s what “The Last of Us: Part II” writers Halley Gross and Neil Druckmann think.
“Sometimes I’ll meet film directors that I’m a big fan of, like I had a meeting with Fede Álvarez, who just did the last ‘Alien’ movie, and he’s telling me how much he was inspired by ‘The Last of Us,’” said Druckmann. He’s head of the video game studio Naughty Dog and an executive producer and co-creator with Craig Mazin of “The Last of Us” TV show at HBO.
“Then I had an interview with Alex Garland and he’s telling me how much he’s inspired by ‘The Last of Us: Part II,’” Druckmann said. “And I’m like, ‘Dude, I stole everything from you from ’28 Days Later.’ What are you talking about?’”
In 2020, Naughty Dog’s action-adventure sequel — about an unlikely father and daughter-esque duo (played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey on TV) facing a zombie-mushroom apocalypse — hit pandemic setbacks and a serious script leak months before the game’s release. Druckmann and Gross said they hoped “The Last of Us” Season 2 roll-out would be “very different,” but stood by their best-selling title.
“We’re really lucky because ‘The Last of Us’ has always been a very character first, narrative first franchise,” said Gross. She and Druckmann co-wrote the game, which went on to earn major award recognition and break sales records. On the show, Druckmann and Gross co-wrote several episodes with Mazin. There are only two games, but “The Last of Us” has already been renewed for Season 3.
“We started out with a very strong base from which to grow,” Gross said, who is also a former TV writer on “Westworld.” “There’s this preconceived notion about what games are like to people who aren’t in it and loving them and playing them. Hopefully, this show makes people go, ‘Hey, wait, what games can be like that?’ Now, I’m intrigued.’”
Good storytellers can jump between mediums “pretty seamlessly,” Druckmann said. Still, he agreed that the film, TV, and video game industries are “bleeding into each other,” from Prime Video’s Emmy-winning “Fallout” to the new live-action/animation hybrid “A Minecraft Movie.” Even with that messiness in mind, Druckmann said, it’s important to secure and maintain the right talent that understands games.
“The people at the top must be gamers, must have a love for it,” Druckmann said, noting the slew of adaptations he has seen fall through during his career. “I don’t even know how many times we [went] through it on ‘Uncharted’ with different directors, different writers, before we ended up with a film that was really successful.”
He continued, “You must find someone that loves it as much as you do.” For “The Last of Us,” Druckmman said, “That was Craig Mazin.”
What made Naughty Dog think that a comedy writer for “Mythic Quest — who is also the guy behind the devastating historical miniseries, “Chernobyl”— was the right fit for the job? Several factors helped Mazin’s case then, but the black-and-white switchblade etched onto the showrunner’s forearm these days couldn’t have hurt.
“I’m hardly the only person that has a ‘Last of Us’ tattoo,” Mazin told IndieWire in another interview. “But people ink this [game] onto their skin permanently. It is a huge part of who they are, and I’m one of those fans. So, of course I don’t want to do anything that is going to break it. On the other hand, I get to work with Neil Druckmann and he’s not going to let me break anything. He’s incredibly generous about figuring out how we expand things and grow the story and find new opportunities.”
When Druckmann first met Mazin, he said he could tell that the Emmy winner was a true “Last of Us” devotee. “[Craig] was talking about such tiny details that only the most hardcore of our fans have picked up on,” Druckmann said. “And he sees all of it.”
That care and attention to detail proved essential when the show’s’ scope expanded between Season 1 and 2. The technical challenges Mazin faced while making his freshman and sophomore batches of “The Last of Us” were mostly the same, he said, but “the canvas got bigger.” Mazin said, “It didn’t get bigger because it needed to. It got bigger because it was supposed to.”
Druckmann said, “Then bringing [Mazin and the show] to a place like HBO that respects story, respects creators, it gives us the resources to have these ambitions, especially this season with what we’re doing on this insane rollercoaster ride. That’s the way to do it right.”
Yes, you can assemble the perfect team and the right equipment. But the only way to win a game is to play it — your way, right? Even when adapting beloved source material that gamers will feel strongly about, Druckmann said, specificity and originality are still king.
“You have to strike that balance,” he said. “If you get too close to the material and you don’t change anything, then you just copied it and it’s going to be a lesser version. If you change too much, you might end up with something good, but you’ve lost the essence of it. It’s this narrow band that you have to thread that needle, and I think that’s what makes the best adaptations. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
“The Last of Us” Season 2 premieres Sunday, April 13 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
