HBO's The Last of Us Got a Bigger Budget Than Most Game of Thrones Seasons

By Marc Deschamps

To bring the world of The Last of Us to life, HBO pulled out the stops, offering a budget much higher than most are probably expecting. According to reporting from The New Yorker, the live-action series has a budget higher than each of the first five seasons of Game of Thrones! While the actual figure was not revealed by the outlet, The New Yorker puts the number "upward of a hundred million dollars." That's pretty hard to believe, but it does say a lot about the network's faith in the series, and in its ability to find a passionate audience.

While fans of the PlayStation games will no doubt tune-in for the series, it will be interesting to see if the HBO adaptation can hook casual viewers. The show is being co-written and co-produced by The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann, as well as Chernobyl's Craig Mazin. From everything revealed thus far, The Last of Us seems to be a fairly faithful adaptation of the 2013 game. However, Mazin and Druckmann have indicated that the show will deviate from the game in some respects, including at least one "jaw drop" moment cut from the game.

While HBO's expectations for the show are clearly high, the same can be said for fans of the game. Over the last 10 years, The Last of Us has built a passionate following, and fans aren't shy about sharing their feelings; many still aren't happy about how the second game turned out. The struggle with any adaptation is finding a way to please fans of the source material, as well as newcomers. It remains to be seen whether HBO's investment will pay off, but fans won't have to wait much longer to find out for themselves!

The Last of Us is set to debut on HBO on January 15th. In the meantime, readers can check out all of our previous coverage of the show right here.

Are you looking forward to HBO's The Last of Us adaptation? Are you surprised by the show's budget? Let us know in the comments or share directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!

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