Summary
- The Last of Us was almost a movie, but it's better as a TV show due to the story's depth and emotional impact.
- Turning the game into a movie was a challenge due to scope, conflicting visions, and the issue of condensing the story.
- The TV show's creation was a blessing, with perfect casting and added depth, making it a superior adaptation choice.
Before HBO delivered a perfect adaptation of The Last of Us in the form of a serialized TV show, the game was almost turned into a two-hour movie that would’ve butchered the story and ironed out its emotional substance. Naughty Dog’s two biggest blockbuster gaming franchises – The Last of Us and Uncharted – both made it to the screen in live-action adaptations within a year of each other. But in the years leading up to their eventual releases, these adaptations had been languishing in development hell. Sony attempted to make a Last of Us movie adaptation before pivoting to television.
On paper, Sony’s planned movie adaptation of The Last of Us sounded promising. Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of the franchise and sole writer of the original game, was working on a screenplay, while Sam Raimi, one of the most revered horror filmmakers in Hollywood, was attached as a producer. While it would’ve been interesting to see Raimi’s take on Joel and Ellie’s banter – and it would’ve been great to see some of the game’s set-pieces realized on the big screen – it’s ultimately for the best that this movie project fell through and paved the way for the TV series.
It Would've Been Impossible To Cram The Last Of Us' Story Into A Two-Hour Movie
Even the TV series struggled to fit in every plot point from the game
The most obvious issue with turning The Last of Us into a movie is that the story is simply too big to fit into a feature-length runtime. The game takes about 12 hours to tell the epic tale of Joel and Ellie’s cross-country adventure – giving plenty of breathing room to both the nail-biting action scenes and the heartstring-tugging father-daughter bonding – but a movie adaptation would’ve only had two hours to tell the same story. In order to streamline the narrative, the movie might’ve had to cut out scenes that provide crucial context, like the prologue with Sarah’s death.
Even if it was pared back to feature only the most essential plot points, it would’ve had to move at such a rapid pace that it would lose all the emotional substance. The game and the TV series work so well because they allow the audience to really go on this journey with Joel and Ellie and spend a lot of time getting to know them and watching them warm up to each other. Two hours just isn’t long enough to make that connection. It wouldn’t hit on the deeper level that made the game so impactful.
The Studio's Vision For The Last Of Us Movie Was Different From The Creator's
Neil Druckmann wanted to make The Road; Sony wanted to make World War Z
While it was a wise move for Sony to recruit the game’s writer Neil Druckmann to pen the script for the movie adaptation, Druckmann and the studio ended up fundamentally disagreeing on their vision for the movie. Druckmann wanted to make a bleak, intense, character-focused thriller like The Road or No Country for Old Men – two of the biggest influences on the game – but the studio wanted a big, action-packed blockbuster like World War Z or the Resident Evil films (via Syfy). There was no way to reconcile these two disparate visions, so the project fell through.
On top of that, Raimi might not have been the right filmmaker to handle The Last of Us. He was only attached as a producer, and there’s no word on whether he would’ve directed the movie, but either way, he would’ve had some creative involvement in the process. Raimi is one of the greatest horror directors in the business, but his signature style is completely at odds with the tone of The Last of Us. Raimi’s horror movies, like The Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell, are campy and over-the-top, whereas The Last of Us is gritty and grounded.
Why It's A Good Thing The Last Of Us Movie Fell Through
The HBO series ended up being the perfect adaptation
While it would’ve been interesting to see a condensed version of The Last of Us, streamlined and aggrandized for big-screen consumption, it’s probably for the best that the movie adaptation never got made, because the TV show ended up being the perfect adaptation. HBO and series co-creator Craig Mazin shared Druckmann’s vision of a grounded, character-centric horror story – so much so that the TV adaptation removed almost all of the game’s action scenes to focus exclusively on Joel and Ellie’s surrogate father-daughter relationship. If the movie had gotten made, the TV show probably would’ve never happened.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were the perfect casting choices to play Joel and Ellie in live-action. They each individually recaptured what made Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s performances so iconic in the game while also putting their own unique spin on the roles. Plus, their on-screen chemistry is just as dynamic as Baker and Johnson’s, making the characters’ father-daughter bond feel just as beautifully real in the TV show as it did in the game, which is the key to making this story work.
Whereas the movie adaptation would’ve had to cut out a lot of things, the TV show had the space to add things. It added in standalone cold opens like the ‘60s talk show that foreshadows the Cordyceps outbreak and the scientist in Jakarta who determines that the world is doomed, which created a powerful sense of dread. The first episode expanded on Sarah’s last day, which made her untimely death even more heartbreaking. The Last of Us was much more suited to the TV format than the movie format, and the dream team of Druckmann and Mazin nailed the adaptation.
The Last Of Us' Scrapped Movie Could've Changed The Franchise Forever
The movie would've been developed alongside The Last of Us Part II
The movie adaptation of The Last of Us was in development as far back as 2014, just one year after the game’s initial release. If the movie project had actually gone forward and gotten produced throughout the 2010s, then it would’ve been developed alongside The Last of Us Part II. Some of the new ideas introduced in the TV show, like the underground Cordyceps network, may be incorporated into future Last of Us games. By that token, any ideas developed for the movie adaptation might’ve ended up in The Last of Us Part II.
Plus, the story of The Last of Us Part II could’ve been developed with a movie adaptation in mind. It’ll be tough enough to turn The Last of Us Part II into the next couple of seasons of the TV show; it would be truly impossible to do that story justice in a feature film. The story might have drastically changed if Part II was made with the hope of turning it into a sequel to The Last of Us movie.
