![]() ![]() Upon HBO’s greenlighting season 2, executive producer and show co-creator Craig Mazin released the following statement: “I’m so grateful to Neil Druckmann and HBO for our partnership, and I’m even more grateful to the millions of people who have joined us on this journey. ![]() (That’s the biggest increase for an HBO original drama in history.) Suffice to say folks were and remain invested in the adaptation of the PlayStation series, which itself has sold millions of copies across two games. The HBO adaptation is the media giant’s second largest debut, falling only behind Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon in viewership, and having experienced a 22 percent audience jump from its first episode to its second. And now that the series has multiple Emmy nominations under its belt, expect an even splashier season 2. After setting HBO viewership records, zombie apocalypse thriller The Last of Us is headed for a second season, bringing Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal back as emotionally traumatized psuedo-father-daughter duo Ellie and Joel. Season 1 surprised us with Bill and Frank's ( Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett) episode, the whole Kansas City arc was completely new to us, and David ( Scott Shepherd), the most terrifying villain of the game, became terrifying all over again, but for completely different reasons.Prepare for more of those clicker sounds bouncing around your brain. If you're afraid of having your experience with the series spoiled by knowing where the story eventually will go, don't be, because there will be plenty of new things, too. Adapting anything to a different media is a challenge, so there are bound to be divergences between the original and adaptation, too. Still, even for those who had played the game before, there were a lot of surprises, too. We had a lot of fun looking for Easter eggs after each episode, laughing when seeing gags from the game, and marveled at how accurate they managed to portray some scenes, like in the first episode. But there's no denying that the show Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann cooked up was designed primarily for fans of the game. Many people boarded the hype train as marketing for the series started and then followed it weekly as it aired on HBO - and were often left in tears side-by-side with people who have played the game, too. Nothing is previously required of anyone to watch The Last of Us, of course. So if you're ready to get hurt again, you should definitely use some of that time we have until Season 2 to get to know their stories and have your heart broken. Season 1 of the HBO show continued the game's trait of having supporting characters inform and lead the journey the main ones undertake, and that's still true for Part II, as well, all of them being deeply developed and aligning either with Ellie, or against her, and all for good reason. It also introduces a whole new set of great characters, like Ellie's girlfriend Dina ( Shannon Woodward), Elllie's antagonist Abby ( Laura Bailey), her boyfriend Owen ( Patrick Fugit), and runaway Lev ( Ian Alexander). It takes Ellie away from the safety of the Jackson commune and to some new and interesting places, especially Seattle, which is faithfully represented in the game with tons of references to real places, and not-so-sunny California. Some of that story was already teased in " Look For The Light", the Season 1 finale, which will likely connect directly with the plot that is the main driver for Part II. News of the HBO adaptation were comforting, and the series definitely delivered on that end, but, now, here we are again. So we got our fix but we were already craving more a few months later. But, just as there are people who like to binge-watch TV shows, for some of us playing the game was something that could have been done over a weekend. We finally got our fix of The Last of Us again precisely when Part II arrived, with a new story focusing on Ellie ( Ashley Johnson in the games, Bella Ramsey on TV) and turning Joel ( Troy Baker in the games, Pedro Pascal on TV) as more of a supporting, background character. By then, videogame adaptations had a somewhat "cursed" reputation, none of them considered nearly as good as their original material. It wasn't until March 2020 that Craig Mazin was hired to turn the game's story into a TV series at HBO. There were false alarms along the way, like when Screen Gems announced a movie produced by none other than Sam Raimi, for example, but that didn't work out. Oh, sweet summer child, what do you know about waiting? Fans of The Last of Us have been waiting for almost 10 years to see an adaptation make its way to screens. ![]()
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