Though fans of The Last of Us have been quick to praise the latest episode of the HBO TV series, some couldn’t help but notice some big changes from the game. Not only did the series alter the character of Sam in a major way, but it also omitted sections from the PlayStation favorite and made a change to Henry that viewers may not have even noticed. Speaking on the official The Last of Us Podcast, series showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann opened up about some of the major shifts that the series did from the game’s narrative in the episode, like how they took the game’s version of Henry, who kills other enemies alongside you, into someone that has never hurt another living soul.
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“There’s a change here, pretty significant from the game,” Druckmann said of Henry’s change. “We needed Henry to be able to fight and kill with you (in the game). And we try to give a certain morality in the game to Henry that even Joel wouldn’t have, which is like– There’s a part where Sam tries to steal this toy from this toy store, and Henry says, ‘No, we only take what we need and no more.’ And it was just a way to kind of separate them. Here, again, because we don’t need Henry to kill, there’s this beautiful choice of, like, I’ve never killed anybody.’….I think it just immediately separates him from Joel. And you understand why Henry is so reliant on this man. that he just spotted kill a bunch of people.”
The bigger change from the game, which is hinted at but mostly skipped over, is when the characters find themselves in the tunnels underneath Kansas City. As game players know, an entire storyline plays out through letters and journals that they can find, detailing the life of a survivor named “Ish” and the community that he lived with below the city. In the TV series a passing tease of Ish is seen in a drawing, but the story of the character is cut entirely.
Regarding that change, Druckmann noted that they always had a conversation about ways that the show could “enrich” the game, an example being how it changed the story of Bill and Frank, but noted that the Ish storyline is one way that the game enrichses hte show.
“We just couldn’t tell the story in the show. There was just no way to do it,” he added. “But we wanted to honor that this place existed, and it felt like there’s a way to reflect back on these characters and the journey they’re going through now, especially with kids lived here. And you saw Sam sketching and drawing stuff before, and now you could’ve imagined there would have been, like, a dozen kids here, and now they’re all gone. So, I just love, again, it’s this moment that honors it. And it’s like these two almost like parallel dimension of the same story live side by side and kind of help talk to one another and enrich the other.”
Even Craig Mazin admitted that the series could have, in theory, done a whole episode about the Ish character but that the way it came out in the show was better than what that might have been. He noted, “It’s better to tip our hats to Ish and then have people play the game.”
When does The Last of Us air?
The Last of Us airs on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Eastern every Sunday with The Last of Pods debuting immediately following each show. For more Last of Us content, check out ComicBook and Entertainment Tonight’s new podcast: The Last of Pods. The podcast will include breakdowns of each episode, interviews with special guests from the show, and more.
