The Last of Us is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. The story is played from a third-person perspective. Players use firearms and improvised weapons, and can use stealth to defend against hostile humans and cannibalistic creatures infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps. In the online multiplayer mode, up to eight players engage in cooperative and competitive gameplay.
Is there The Last of US TV series?
While “The Last of Us” fans eagerly await the HBO adaptation of the hugely popular video game, HBO has dropped a new look at Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie as they hide from a clicker, one of the post-apocalyptic monstrosities taking over the world.
In the new (and very dark) photo, Pascal and Ramsey are seen hiding underneath a table as a menacing clicker looms in the background. In the video game, clickers are humans who have been infected by the parasitic cordyceps fungus. After people are infected, they turn into deranged, zombie-like beings who attack other living humans. When enough time passes, the fungus takes over their bodies and sprouts from their faces, resulting in grotesque branches of fungi bursting from their heads.
The new image was unveiled at the Summer Game Fest on Thursday, with Neil Druckmann, co-president of video game studio Naughty Dog and co-creator, executive producer, writer and director of the HBO series, on hand, along with voice actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who played Joel and Ellie in the game. Baker and Johnson will also appear in the HBO series, but as different characters than who they played in the game, they announced Thursday.
The rest of the cast includes Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy; Merle Dandridge as Marlene, the leader of the rebel group the Fireflies; Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank; Nick Offerman as Bill; Jeffrey Pierce as Perry; and Anna Torv as Tess.
Along with Druckmann, Craig Mazin serves as co-creator, executive producer, writer and director. The series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, and PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint and Naughty Dog produce.
How will The Last of Us TV show story differ from the game?
HBO’s official synopsis for their big budget adaptation reads as follows:
“The story takes place 20 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 across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.”
It seems that the show will be following the basic story of the games, then – though Druckmann has confirmed that some episodes will “deviate greatly” from the source material, in terms of their focus on drama over hardcore action. For the production team, the “philosophical underpinnings of the story“ were the essential aspects they wanted to get right with the adaptation.
“As far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt? They might or might not appear in it,” Druckmann said, “that’s way less important to us than getting to the core of who these people are and the core of their journey.“
The Last of Us TV show may also be set in a slightly different time period to the game that inspired it. A report on IGN India(opens in new tab) notes that leaked set photos suggest the zombie outbreak began in 2003, rather than the 2013 that’s part of games canon. With the story set 20 years after the end of civilization, that would place the main action of the TV show in 2023 – maybe the show will come to our screens in 2023 after all?
Who is the main character in The Last of Us?
The Last of Us is a masterpiece of gaming. Part Children of Men, part The Road, tells a very moving story about a cross-country trip through zombie-infected America. And while all the zombie stuff is obviously great, the game generated most of its praise owing to its stellar writing, fantastic performances, and remarkable characters.
It’s no secret that video game writing isn’t of the highest caliber. When it comes to entertainment mediums and their respective stories, video games are pretty far down on the list. But games like The Last of Us are slowly changing that perception.
Joel is the lead protagonist of the story, and he is arguably the greatest protagonist in modern gaming. Like many great pieces of literature, the game asks us to question Joel’s morality and motivation. Is he a good but flawed and tragic person trying his best in a post-apocalyptic hellscape, or is he a selfish villain willing to doom the world for his own personal satisfaction?
The ending to The Last of Us leaves viewers to answer these questions on their own, and it may throw players’ perceptions into chaos.
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