The excitement is building for the second season of The Last of Us. As the release date gets closer, series creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin recently explained the process behind adapting the Naughty Dog video game for television.
"The way we approach it, we start at the beginning of the season, and we break the season, and we look at the game. Our goal is to tell the best story possible," Druckmann told Variety's Strictly Business podcast. "And then our process is to just look at the content we have in the game and say, 'OK, what are things that we both just overwhelmingly love and feel could be adapted as is?' And we just put little check marks by those index cards to say, 'OK, those things could just stay as is,' and that becomes building blocks."
Druckmann mentioned the Season 1 episode "Long, Long Time" as an example of how the series differs from the game. He and Mazin agreed that the characters Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) needed to be developed more to make the story work. "There are a couple of reasons why we did that. In the game, you get to know Bill through action, because the game really relies on interactivity and action," he said.
"And if we were to translate that sequence of Bill, it might be OK, it might even be good," Druckman continued. "It wouldn't be great, because that amount of action on screen, when you're not interacting with it, you don't get the kind of tension or immersion you would get in the game. So instead, you just get spectacle, and that spectacle eventually would wear thin." To prevent that from happening, the duo decided that something needed to change, so Mazin adjusted the story.
Creating an Adaptation Requires a Lot of Brainstorming
"When you come into the game, Frank is not alive anymore. So we just hinted at this relationship between these two men. And here, instead, we said, well, let's focus on that relationship," Druckman explained. "[It's important to] recognize areas that just don't work because they're designed for this interactive medium, and then start brainstorming."
"How do we expand this world? How will we build this world?" Druckman added. Sometimes the best surprises for players are when they get to see a backstory or like, oh, this was mentioned in the game, and now they get to see a full episode, like Bill and Frank. It makes the game richer. To me, that's the best kind of adaptation."
In celebration of The Last of Us Day HBO gave fans a look at Season 2 with the release of a teaser trailer and three new character posters. Created by artist Greg Ruth, the images showcase Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), along with newcomer Kaitlyn Dever as Abby.
