Warning: This piece comprises full spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Half II.
The Last of Us is a component of an ongoing craze of trustworthy online game variations with roots traceable all the manner again to the unique Silent Hill movie. Nevertheless, adapting a sport like The Last of Us Half II is a bit completely different from adapting its predecessor, not simply because it has a extra sophisticated, fractured narrative, but in addition as a result of it’s a (phenomenal) sport with far more dramatic meat to discover, each in phrases of sheer size and in the thornier dimensions it mines from its characters. To make a present that stands as much as its inspiration, it most probably must make some main deviations from the supply materials. Whereas diehard followers might cry foul, it may be the solely manner this adaptation can really feel as very important as the sport does.
It’s one thing co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who can be inventive director of The Last of Us video games, agrees on. Speaking to Variety about the adaptation course of, he famous {that a} frequent mistake is “staying so near the supply materials that’s constructed and designed and written for this different medium that has strengths and weaknesses, and attempting to translate it as is, with no modifications to this different medium that has completely different strengths and weaknesses.” the newly launched first trailer for Season 2, we will already see the first indicators of how Druckmann and his inventive associate Craig Mazin might have altered the unique story to go well with the tv medium.
Season II.
The HBO Unique Collection #TheLastOfUs returns in 2025 on Max. #TLOUDay pic.twitter.com/Wdzk759JIg
— Max (@StreamOnMax) September 26, 2024
Different Mediums, Different Priorities
With so many creative mediums bleeding into one another as of late, it may well generally be laborious to do not forget that video video games and tv are two very various things. Each medium for telling tales has execs and cons which might be just about inseparable from the type. The narrative strategies that make good sense in interactive fiction with reference to scene geography, environment, environmental design, and use of participant expression usually don’t translate to one thing with a set runtime and no enter from the viewer.
That’s to not say you’ll be able to’t attempt. The first season of The Last of Us meticulously rebuilt many moments from the sport’s cutscenes, generally actually body by body. However what goal does that basically serve? The story labored excellently the first time round, the sport is accessible in its greatest ever type with The Last of Us Half I Remastered, and the cutscenes are available on YouTube. If individuals desire a really trustworthy model of the story, it’s already on the market and has been for years. If something, taking this cutscene cloning strategy, fairly than permitting the present’s route and cinematography to current the story’s most important moments in an entirely new manner, solely highlights the methods the unique video games ceaselessly veered away from the strengths of interactive narrative. And it’s developer Naughty Canine’s adoption of non-interactive storytelling method that makes such scenes really easy to plop straight right into a TV present.
I say this as a large fan of each video games: they sort of already had been HBO reveals. They do use the potentialities of interactive storytelling to their benefit, however in phrases of primary building and scene route, even throughout playable segments, there’s liberal use of the strategies and stylistic conventions of status tv. This is the reason it isn’t simply ironic that the video games had been finally tailored as an HBO present; it was really easy to adapt them as a result of the video games did rather a lot of the work already. This isn’t to low cost any of the contributions from the present’s administrators, writers or performers, however the blueprint for a profitable tv present was already baked straight into the sport. So if the subsequent season needs to be its greatest self, it will do effectively to discover a new technique to current the story many of us already know.
Develop and Discover
Even with its fealty to the unique sport, the first season of The Last of Us usually benefited from the deviations it did make. Hiring Latino actor Pedro Pascal gave a robust new take for principal protagonist Joel by including a softer dad-like high quality to him in comparison with Troy Baker’s gruffer edge, including new characters like Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen expanded the post-apocalyptic world explored in the unique sport, and devoting a whole episode to the unseen story of Invoice (Nick Offerman) and his lover Frank (Murray Bartlett) led to what many thought-about to be the season’s greatest entry. Not like a online game, which often necessitates some sort of consistency to the participant perspective via the controllable character, tv affords the alternative to shift focus extra readily, and the present made nice use of that in key areas.