neil druckmann Archives

Thanks to HBO & Max CEO and Chairman Casey Bloys and a weekly production list, all signs point to production on the second season of Neil Druckmann & Craig Mazin's Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Bella)-starring The Last of Us beginning in early 2024 – possibly January Thanks to an email from Druckman, fans are[...]

The New York Videogame Critics Circle (NYVGCC) announced that Neil Druckmann is the recipient of the Andrew Yoon Legend Award for the 2024 New York Game Awards The man behind The Last Of Us will be honored in January with the award as they celebrate his 20-year career in the industry and the works that[...]

Coincidentally, Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann shared what some might say was a cryptic post concerning his pride and joy franchise, The Last of Us, commemorating the day of the Cordyceps outbreak on September 26th on social media. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO A Tease for "The[...]

What might have helped is co-creator in Neil Druckmann, who not laid the foundation of the HBO series from the original Naughty Dog games, but also dealt with vitriol and backlash from 2020's Part II from toxic fans Both made conscious decisions to take advantage of the TV format to expand on the elements of[...]

If there's one thing that The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin is aware of since taking the job from day one, it's the incessant comparisons of the HBO series with co-creator & Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann to the PlayStation videogames starting with the 2013 original While all involved received a more proportionally positive[...]

Neil Druckmann, who co-developed the game with Bruce Straley, co-created the HBO series with Craig Mazin. Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO The Last of Us: Steven Yeun Shares His Game Journey with Pedro Pascal "I played it 12 hours straight, down to that last [moment] where you just push the characters[...]

While he worked on both PlayStation games in 2013 and 2020, he returned to help creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann's vision to life for the HBO adaptation Santaolalla spoke with Bleeding Cool about Druckmann's original pitch, expanding narratives like the episode "Long, Long Time," inspirations, and the surge of new fans. Pedro[...]

Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann spoke at a press conference to address the fallout and lingering questions from the season finale (via The Hollywood Reporter). Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO The Last of Us: Joel's Fateful Decision When it comes to Joel's rampage, "When you love something unconditionally, the logic[...]

Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller might have gone all out in HBO The Last of Us season finale "Look for the Light," but so did creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, pulling off the stealthiest of cameos only eagle-eyed fans might have caught The episode in question finds Joel making a fateful decision at a hospital[...]

Original Ellie actress Ashley Johnson on appearing in HBO's The Last of Us, Bella Ramsey, and the season finale/video game comparisons.

To say that creators Craig Mazin along with Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann captured the latter would be an understatement expanding the compelling narratives of its characters within the dystopian apocalypse With season one officially under wraps, the two opened up in a virtual press conference (via Variety) about the series' biggest complaints from fans[...]

Being able to take the essence of the game and bring it to life on the small screen with layered details that expand on the original source material is an aspect of the series that's not nearly celebrated enough. Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO The drama Part I lays out[...]

I liked the change of having David become a preacher, but the writing and pacing suffered as we got to know him better Mazin & co-creator Neil Druckmann realized they were running out of time and still had to dedicate space for the season finale The series, up to this point, felt like it enhanced[...]

When HBO tasked creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog Visionary Neil Druckmann with compressing the events of the 2013 classic PlayStation game The Last of Us Part I into a nine-episode first season, the two went above and beyond to include the optional downloadable side adventure "Left Behind." The adventure served as a backstory and[...]

Directed by Liza Johnson (The Sex Lives of College Girls, Physical, Dead to Me) and written by creator Neil Druckmann, the two did a wonderful job expanding Ellie and Riley's mall adventure from the game Ramsey and Reid certainly benefitted from Johnson's experience with other female-led dramas. Bella Ramsey and Storm Reid in "The Last of[...]

That's what henchmen are for pic.twitter.com/YwkmkwUdOm — Melanie Lynskey (@melanielynskey) February 8, 2023 For more, including Lynskey explaining her character, praise to creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, and more, you can read the thread below The next episode of The Last of Us premieres Friday on HBO before it returns to its normal time Sundays on[...]

When The Last of Us creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann boldly announced they wanted to go above and beyond and transcend the PlayStation games for the HBO series, they weren't messing around This couldn't be made more abundantly clear than in the episode "Long Long Time," which focuses on Bill (Nick Offerman) The following[...]

While creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann made it abundantly clear that season one of HBO's The Last of Us will cover the story of the first game while expanding its mythos in the process, the 2020 follow-up in Part II will be a whole other can of worms That's how Mazin[...]

It's something that creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog game visionary Neil Druckmann are painfully aware of Following the release of episode two, "Infected," the two spoke with Variety and broke down the episode, including starting the episode in Indonesia, how much the series will expand on the Cordyceps pandemic, spores versus tendrils, and fan[...]

When Craig Mazin signed on to co-create The Last of Us for HBO alongside Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, they tackled the Herculean task of compressing 15 hours' worth of content into a nine-episode season while expanding the PlayStation game's mythos Among the missed opportunities the duo had to scale back was Tess, played by Anna[...]

Already founded on a contentious and shaky foundation, we see the first real signs of Joel and Ellie bonding while Tess is focused on the task at hand. Image: HBO We get more deviations from the game as creators Craig Mazin (who wrote the episode "Infected") and Neil Druckmann (who directed it) compress a 15-hour game into[...]

Second, creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had plans for original voice actors Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Jeffrey Pierce, who played Joel, Ellie, and Tommy in the games, in different roles for the live-action series With the HBO series leads Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Gabriel Luna respectively playing the roles, Mazin and Druckmann[...]

When Neil Druckmann recruited Craig Mazin to adapt Sony and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us to an HBO series, there were some obvious questions on how it would differentiate itself from its other zombie apocalypse contemporaries At the heart of the series are Joel and Ellie, played by Game of Thrones alum Pedro Pascal[...]

Would it be more action-oriented like the games, or would it expand more on the universe providing more character exposition? At the show's premiere, creators Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann (who was also the creative director for the ND titles) and star Pedro Pascal spoke to Variety about what the series allows them to do[...]

Premiering in tandem with the show on Sunday, January 15, the podcast will release new episodes each Sunday (nine episodes in total.) Source: HBO In The Last of Us Podcast, Baker sits down with series creators Craig Mazin (the creator of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (the writer/director of The Last of Us game franchise) for a scene-by-scene deep dive of[...]

While The Last of Us creators Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann have no intentions of doing the ambitious world-building that George R R Martin's Game of Thrones or AMC's The Walking Dead franchise, the duo wanted to take the opportunity to tell a more complete story regarding the Cordyceps fungal plague from the original Naughty[...]

Last month, series star Bella Ramsey (Ellie) offered fans a brief update on how things were going with Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin's upcoming HBO series adaptation of the video game franchise The Last of Us. With Ramsey joined by Pedro Pascal (Joel), Bella Ramsey (Ellie), Gabriel Luna (Tommy, Joel's younger brother), Nico Parker (Sarah), Merle Dandridge (resistance leader[...]

On Friday, we took a break from learning who else will be joining Pedro Pascal (Joel), Bella Ramsey (Ellie), and Gabriel Luna (Tommy) in front of the camera to learn who will be joining pilot director Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole, Closeness) on the directing team for Neil Druckmann (game franchise) and Craig Mazin's live-action HBO series adaptation[...]

Last month, we learned that Game of Thrones star Bella Ramsey had been tapped to play Ellie and The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal has been tapped to play Joel in Craig Mazin (HBO's Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann's (video game franchise) live-action HBO series adaptation of video game franchise The Last of Us Now, Druckmann's offering some[...]

Craig Mazin (HBO's Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann's ("The Last of Us" and "Uncharted" video game franchises) live-action HBO series adaptation of video game franchise The Last of Us has found a director for its pilot, tapping Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole, Closeness) to helm the project Originally, it was thought that Mazin and Chernobyl director Johan Renck would[...]