The Last of Us Creator Teases His Episode of the New HBO Show

It remains to be seen how faithful HBO’s adaptation of The Last of Us will be, but the show has tapped its creator, Neil Druckmann, to direct an episode of the show. What episode this will be, we don’t know, but Druckmann recently opened up about the experience of filmmaking and how is both similar and different to directing games, which he has done across both The Last of Us and Uncharted. In the process of this, Druckmann also teased his episode of the show, though, as you would expect, the director didn’t have anything too juicy to share.

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot because there are two different approaches you can take,” said Druckmann of the show. “The games, both Uncharted and Last of Us, are so cinematic. They’re scored. They’re acted. It’s unclear how one should adapt them – what to keep and not keep. With Uncharted and Last of Us, we’re taking very different approaches. With Uncharted, it’s telling a whole other story that’s picking and choosing moments from the franchise and giving you an Uncharted flavor. With The Last of Us, we’re trying to tell the same story that’s in the game, deviating in minor ways. I don’t know if either is wrong or right, but you have to play to the strengths of the medium. Here’s an experience that worked well, and you’re taking something out of it that is fundamental to telling its story, which is the interactive part. So you better complement it in other ways. For example, you can jump around between character perspectives in a way you wouldn’t in a game, because we’re trying to immerse you as the character you’re playing as.”

Druckmann continued, getting into his experience directing an episode of the show:

“I had the privilege of directing an episode for the HBO show, and it’s just learning how they handle cinematography or how they plan shots. So there’s a creative side to that – just how you’re thinking about clarity of storytelling. In this instance, each shot has to have a single purpose. You’re not trying to get muddy with too many ideas in one shot. It reflects a lot of our thinking in how we’re approaching games. But it’s just reinforcing the notion of clarity.”

As you can see, Druckmann suggests his directing style when it comes to movies isn’t all that different from games, which is to say, expect scenes that are laser-focused on the subjects, which more often than note, should be Ellie and Joel. 

Unfortunately, Druckmann didn’t have anything to say about when the show will be released or revealed. We still don’t have any information for either of these things. That said, you can check out our previous and extensive coverage of the show by clicking right here.

H/T, LA Times.