The hype is not accidental: what are the reasons for the popularity of The Last of Us show based on the game of the same name

The Last of Us series was a rare event when both critics and viewers agreed. Both camps called the show one of the best video game adaptations in history. And on the HBO service, the adaptation has already managed to set a notable record. In this regard, UNIAN decided to look into the reasons for its success and analyze the difference between the series and its source – The Last of Us by Naughty Dog.

Have you ever wondered how difficult it is to make a good adaptation of a game? Not? Then let’s think together. The main rule of every excellent adaptation is the preservation of the canon. If you ignore this law, fans of the source will arrange a “crusade” on the Internet against the picture. And they are guaranteed to be the backbone of the audience and its loudest part.

In such a situation, the safest option is to retell the plot of the game. It’s just that nobody cares. Writers and directors will not want to simply transfer an already written story to small and large screens, and viewers will quickly get bored with watching what they saw in another format.

There are two more paths left. The first is to create a movie, series, or anime in the game’s universe. You can realize the original story, but in a familiar setting and with references. The magical Arcane and the excellent Cyberpunk: Edgerunners have been very successful in this way. However, these are not adaptations, but rather works that complement the games.

But the second way and the most difficult, and the only true when creating a “correct” film adaptation. It’s about presenting history while preserving the canon and interpreting it at the same time. The creators must leave the foundation, but stick details on it: change the accents, deepen the story, and expand it to the sides. And you know? I do not remember any such adaptation of the game, although I follow all of them. I didn’t remember exactly until the show The Last of Us appeared.

There are no extras on the boat

In-game, adaptations began to invest effort, money, and creative impulse relatively recently. Previously, films and series based on interactive projects were, at best, the average for a good portion of sweets. At the same time, all sorts of “Resident Evil”, “In the Name of the King” and “Alone in the Dark” were obtained much more often. Such adaptations are still appearing now – which is only worth last year’s Resident Evil series from Netflix.

But in general, the creators began to try harder, especially under pressure from a huge audience of video game fans. If you try to sell the audience a film adaptation of a popular project, made for a conditional three kopecks, then you can bury your reputation. Interactive entertainment has become a giant media, and this has to be reckoned with.

However, the adaptation of The Last of Us even before the release of the first episodes inspired timid hope. At the helm was showrunner Craig Mazin, best known for the series Chernobyl and Mystery Quest. His partner was Neil Druckmann, co-director of Naughty Dog and director of two parts of TLoU. The main roles were taken by Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian”, “Triple Frontier”) and Bella Ramsay (“Game of Thrones”, “His Dark Materials”). And all the shootings took place under the patronage of Sony and HBO.

“Cocktail” gathered excellent, but in history, there are failures and more stellar teams. Therefore, certain doubts remained until the launch of the marketing campaign. Based on numerous interviews, it became clear that the creators chose the very difficult path of producing the “correct” film adaptation. And the main actors were eager to get the roles of Joel and Ellie – Pascal even made special arrangements with Disney to get permission to shoot for HBO. It shows dedication and dedication.

Did not get into the game – will go to the series

Mazin and Druckmann repeatedly emphasized their desire not only to carefully recreate the plot of the game but also to expand it, to enrich it with new details. For example, they decided to include scenes with Anna, Ellie’s mother, in the series, although in the game she is only briefly mentioned in the dialogue.

“There are other stories that were written after the release of the game for various projects that didn’t materialize for one reason or another, and when Craig and I started talking about the story and breaking it down, I mentioned some of them and he opened his eyes wide like a fan and said ‘oh my god we have to bring them to the screen, we have to put them on the show’ You could see in the trailer we released that Ashley Johnson plays Ellie’s mom and that was one of those stories that are near and dear to my heart, and I’m so glad she’s getting a life,” Druckmann told Rotten Tomatoes earlier in the year.

Another good example is the presence of flashbacks showing Joel’s life before the pandemic. “We will be able to explore many moments leading up to the incident… We will see how they became a family for a while. These moments, when everything is still normal, were very funny and also very important for the story to show what this little family looks like when they’re not fighting for their lives,” said Gabriel Luna, who plays Tommy.

From the quotes of the team and the two episodes released at the time of writing, it becomes clear what principle the creators were guided by. They complemented the story with scenes that would have looked good in the game. For example, if suddenly a conditional extended edition of The Last of Us came out.

None of the fans of the Naughty Dog project will refuse to look at Joel’s life before the pandemic or Ellie’s mother. That is why such fragments are also suitable for the series – they are woven into the base and merge in symbiosis with the main narrative vector that strictly follows the game. It remains to be hoped that in the next series, the creators will also be able to balance on a fine line, without going from expansion to transformation of the canon.

This time without a gamepad

Filming game adaptations is usually accompanied by another problem – they need to adapt gameplay episodes. And okay, there are cinematic scenes, like a fight in an airplane from Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. In this case, visual quoting is also suitable. But there are undirected battles, puzzle solving, environmental exploration, platforming, and so on. It’s often a bad idea to translate those moments directly onto the screen.

People play differently. Let’s take the same The Last of Us: in the same fight, the first user will act covertly, the second will shoot all the bullets, and the third will combine the two options, and even kill some of the enemies in close combat or homemade bombs. Which of these methods of passage to show in the series? The answer is simple: none of them. Such fragments need to be adapted to the narrative, overall tone, and atmosphere.

The gameplay disappears, but the need to evoke in the viewer the same emotions that were at that moment in the game remains. And if it doesn’t work out, then you should at least try to use the free space in favor of the development of the narrative. In The Last of Us series, both the first and second approaches are noticeable. A good example is the path to the Capitol in the second episode. The battle in the museum creates the right tension and shows the heroes as people who are difficult to resist the infected. And instead of the scene with Ellie being transported on a makeshift raft, the developers have implemented another fragment that works great for revealing the girl.

And it’s easy to guess why this piece was changed. The need to constantly drag Ellie across the water in the Naughty Dog project has drawn criticism from the players. The annoying moment would have been superfluous in the series, and it was removed, but the story was not compressed. On the contrary, the plot was provided with another scene that fits perfectly into the canon and allows you to better know the character of the main character. And so it is in everything. Even small gameplay moments, like raising a barrier in the passage, the creators of the series have adapted to a smooth narrative. So in some places, the plot in the show is superior to the original.

However, one should not think that the film adaptation abandoned the quoting of the game. Nothing like that – there is a lot of it, but each such scene fits well within the structure and overall pace of the story. The escape by car from Austin, the burning farm of friends Joel and Tommy, the entrance to the Capitol, and many other fragments, as if carefully cut out of the Naughty Dog game.

And this is also important because once again it shows a tribute to the source and evokes warm feelings among fans of the interactive The Last of Us. In two episodes, the creators of the series managed to maintain a balance between new, familiar, and slightly changed within the framework of the canon. And you can’t imagine a better characterization for a screen adaptation.

heroes under makeup

When watching the first episodes of the series, I looked at the characters and thought: “Something is wrong here.” Like Joel, Joel, and Pedro Pascal the image looks like a native, but still, there was a strange feeling. And only after watching the second series, it became clear why this internal suspicion arose. The creators of the show made the characters a little different, but on a deeper, not superficial level.

Joel was given a tough, edgy, and uncompromising edge to underline the legacy of tragedy and twenty years of smuggling. Ellie oozes a childish naivete in places, which is typical of teenagers. But the girl has also become more insightful – she demonstrates a sharp mind and the ability to apply logical thinking. True, this did not make her less of a “splinter”. Tess, on the other hand, feels more reasonable and resilient, with impressive communication and people management skills.

At the same time, the main character’s traits remained intact. The characters are still easily recognizable as game prototypes. That is why it is not immediately possible to understand what the creators of the series have changed. But when you manage to consider the mentioned edits, then it becomes more interesting to follow the heroes. I would like to see how their slightly updated characters will play in difficult situations from the creation of Naughty Dog.

And the authors of the series themselves said that they wanted to give the actors creative freedom. Showrunner Craig Mazin asked the main duo not to play The Last of Us. He wanted to see how Pascal and Ramsay, based on the script, would add some freshness to the protagonists at the expense of creative freedom.

“I didn’t train her [Ramsay] to mimic Ellie’s mannerisms. I didn’t coach her to mimic Ellie’s rhythms. I didn’t train her to do anything other than within scenes, I let her know what the intentions were in the dialogue and text,” Mazin said.

And the approach worked. The actors showed the audience cult characters but in a slightly different shell. And most importantly, again there was no violation of the canon. The characters still look great in the general context of the post-apocalypse and all the accompanying horrors. The creators of the series The Last of Us were able to please both the fans of the source and the new audience, which is generally a rarity.

To be continued?!

So what do we end up with? This question is well answered by statistics. The show received a whopping 9.3 points after 95k ratings. The premiere of the second episode was watched by 5.7 million people on HBO live and on the HBO Max service. This is 22% more than in the case of the first series, and a record increase for the channel.

That is, they talk about the show, it attracts attention and the audience likes it. The ratings here will not let you lie, because the score is derived based on all user reviews. At the same time, critics are of a similar opinion, although they praise the series a little more restrained. The film crew, Mazin, Druckmann, and the actors deserve praise. In addition to the already mentioned advantages, the audience was pleased with the chic scenery, natural dialogues, and competent camera work.

It’s hard to find faults in a series. I strained and tried to find flaws. But as a result, I noticed only the uncritical length of individual episodes, which slightly beats the pace. You also need to get used to changing plans. Operators like to often alternate middle and close, making unusual accents on the details of the environment or the appearance of the characters. It’s more of a feature of the series than a flaw, but it’s still worth noting.

Overall, the show is definitely worth watching. The Last of Us has already become one of the best game adaptations in history and has taken its rightful place next to Arcane. The series feels like a love letter to the source, but it does not forget about the new audience. The creators chose the most difficult adaptation option, but managed and did not go beyond the canon.

That is why the premiere of The Last of Us is such an important event for players and just lovers of quality dramatic works. Mazin, Druckmann, and the team set the example and hopefully, others will follow, as they did with the remakes of classics after Resident Evil 2.