Posted in: HBO, Preview, Trailer, TV | Tagged: HBO, preview, the last of us, trailer

The Last of Us: Craig Mazin Explains HBO Series' Major Advantage

Look, no one's saying that there's a ton of pressure on Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin's Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Ellie)-starring The Last of Us. But to be honest? There is. Because you have the usual social media gatekeepers who automatically push back on anything being done to adapt their beloved video game franchise into anything other than another chapter of the video game. And then there's that "beloved video game franchise" part, meaning anticipation levels are pretty high. And let's not forget that the history of video games being adapted for film or television isn't really a great one. But as Mazin sees it, they have an advantage with The Last of Us that others don't have. "It's an open-and-shut case: this is the greatest story that has ever been told in video games," Mazin shared with Empire during a recent interview.

Mazin believes that the key to the video game's success will also be the key to the show's success. "They didn't shoot anything out of their eyeballs. They were just people. And that, in and of itself, is remarkably rare in games. The fact that they kept it so grounded and really made you feel – I had never experienced anything like it, and I've been playing video games since 1977," he shared. But even as amazing as the storytelling elements may be, not all of them translate well into live-action, giving Druckmann & Mazin a chance to expand the game's universe. "Games themselves are often brilliant to play and not at all brilliant to watch when dramatized. Neil [Druckmann] and I always knew to ask, 'Why are we only doing what's in the game? What can we do to expand?'" Set to arrive on Sunday, January 15, 2023, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, here's a look at the official trailer for HBO's The Last of Us:

HBO's The Last of Us: A Look Back…

Based on the critically acclaimed video game developed by Naughty Dog exclusively for the PlayStation platforms, the story takes place twenty years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel (Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone to the Fireflies, a cure-searching organization. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they both traverse across the U.S. & depend on each other for survival.

Joining Pascal and Ramsey are Gabriel Luna (Tommy, Joel's younger brother), Nico Parker (Sarah), Merle Dandridge (resistance leader Marlene), Jeffrey Pierce (Perry), Anna Torv (Tess), Nick Offerman (Bill), Murray Bartlett (Frank), and Storm Reid (Riley Abel). Lamar Johnson & Keivonn Woodard have also joined the cast, with Graham Greene & Elaine Miles set to guest star as characters original to the series (and not the video game). In addition, video game franchise voice actors Ashley Johnson & Troy Baker (Ellie & Joel in The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II video games) will also be appearing in the series.

Ramsey's Ellie is a 14-year-old who has never known anything but a ravaged planet, struggling to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging … as well as the newfound reality that she may be the key to saving the world. Luna's Tommy is Joel's younger brother- a formal soldier who still holds on to his sense of idealism and hope for a better world. Dandridge's Marlene is the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime, while Parker has been tapped for the role of Joel's daughter, Sarah.

Pierce is set to recur as Perry, a rebel in a quarantine zone. Bartlett has been cast as Frank and Offerman as Bill, two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town. Torv's Tess is a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world who (at least in the video game) works with Joel to survive and smuggle weapons in & out of Boston, and accompanies Joel on the mission to smuggle Ellie to the Fireflies. Reid's Abel is an orphaned girl growing up in a post-apocalyptic Boston (in the video game DLC "The Last of Us: Left Behind," the Yaani Kang-voiced Riley accompanies her best friend Ellie before Joel enters the scene. Johnson's Henry and Woodard's Sam are brothers in Kansas City hiding from a revolutionary movement & seeking vengeance. Greene's Marlon and Miles' Florence are a married couple surviving alone in the wilderness of post-apocalyptic Wyoming.

Written by Mazin and Druckmann with Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole, Closeness) directing the pilot, the series is set to be executive produced by Carolyn Strauss (Chernobyl, Game of Thrones), Naughty Dog's Evan Wells, PlayStation Productions' Asad Qizilbash & Carter Swan, Mazin, and Druckmann. The series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, with PlayStation Productions, Word Games, and Naughty Dog producing. Academy Award nominee Jasmila Žbanić (Quo vadis, Aida) and Ali Abbasi (Border) join pilot-director Balagov in the director's chair.

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