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The Last of Us: Neil Druckmann Wraps Directing Work on HBO Series

Published Sun, 07 Nov 2021 12:09:12 -0600

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 Marlene), Jeffrey Pierce (Perry), Murray Bartlett (Frank), Con O'Neil (Bill), and Anna Torv (Tess), the highly-anticipated series has been rolling along with filming in Canada. But now we're getting a sign that production could be nearing an end with an update from Druckmann via social media that he has wrapped his directorial work on the project and heading back to "warmer weather." We write "could be" because a good chunk of that depends on exactly how many episodes Druckmann was expected to direct considering the number of directors involved with the 10-episode adaptation.

Alas… my time in Canada has come to an end. To the best tv crew in the world, thank you for your incredible work, your passion, and for making me feel so welcome! I will miss you terribly," Druckmann wrote in the caption to his Instagram post, which also included an image of a clapperboard along with what appears to be a stunt team on-set crew hat. "Excited to return to Naughty Dog (and some warmer weather!)." Here's a look at the post:

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A post shared by Neil Druckmann (@druckmann)

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 must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.

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 O'Neil 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.

The Last of Us is coming to HBO (Image: WarnerMedia)

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) joins pilot-director Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole, Closeness) in the director's chair.