It took more creative whittling than fans might have expected (or wanted), but HBO pulled off a successful Game of Thrones follow-up with House of the Dragon’s Targaryen family chaos, and it’s perhaps easy to see how the network’s upcoming horror drama The Last of Us would appear ripe for comparisons to that universe. It’s a fantastical, big-budget adaptation of a beloved and award-winning work that features dangerous creatures and iconic locations, and just so happens to star two GoT vets in Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. But the TV series’ co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann make it clear that fans of the video game shouldn’t expect the live-action version to fall in line with all the Thrones clones that have cropped up over recent years.
In fact, there are some pretty specific ways that The Last of Us easily bucks comparative expectations to the ensemble-driven epic, as Mazin and Druckmann explained to THR. Let’s go through those reasons below.
No Endgame Worries
As much as TV audiences lauded and glorified all things Game of Thrones for its earlier seasons, a lot of that goodwill and appreciation had soured by the end, with showrunners Dan Benioff and D.B. Weiss veering away from George R.R. Martin's texts and speeding the show to its controversial ending. Given that The Last of Us is rather faithfully based on a close-ended video game, with its potential second season also pegged to adapt the equally successful follow-up game, fans don’t need to worry about the TV show straying outside the narrative borders to flip the story and flub the landing. According to Druckmann:
We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games. We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.
For all of the most skeptical and jaded fans out there who might suspect Craig Mazin of wanting to stretch out The Last of Us' cross-country narrative as a way to extend the series' shelf life, the Chernobyl mastermind confirmed that won't be the case at all, as he's dedicated to providing squared-off endings to the stories he tells. As he put it:
I don’t have any interest in a spinning-plates-go-on-forever show. When it becomes a perpetual motion machine, it just can’t help but get kind of … stupid. Endings mean everything to me.
Now, he might have been talking about other shows beyond Game of Thrones just then, but the point stands that Mazin was eager to keep the masterful game's events intact for the adaptation. And while there were definitely changes and expansions made to the source material, its conclusion will actually feel like an ending, as opposed to a hint of something more.
The Last Of Us Doesn't Rely Solely On Bleakness
One big problem that TV viewers have had with studios' post-Thrones approach to grand-scale storytelling is that so many projects ramped up the grittiness and darker elements while seemingly ignoring any attempts at humor and levity. (It's as if no one was paying attention to Peter Dinklage's comedy-crushing skills.) But as gamers are well aware, The Last of Us is just as quick to highlight humankind's more comedic foibles as its more horrific ones. And Craig Mazin made sure not to ignore that element when bringing the show to life, explaining it like this:
I’m an existentialist, and I think part of being human is pointing out how fucking absurd this all is. In a dire situation, humor is where you hang on to your humanity.
I can't think of any other hardcore drama on TV that would feature one of its characters regularly spouting entries from a pun-filled Dad-approved jokebook. But...spoilers...the jokebook is in the show, and it works just as well as in the game.
Its Success Hangs On Just Two Characters
As it was already stated, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon (along with everything else coming to that universe) are built around large groups of characters from different families, locations, and walks of life, in which conflicts and strife are derived from such differences. In contrast, though, The Last of Us is without question Joel and Ellie's story. The show obviously does feature a smattering of other major characters such as Gabriel Luna's Tommy and Merle Dandridge's Marlene, but no one's else's presence comes close to being as imperative as the central duo. HBO's big boss Casey Bloys is as aware as anyone that this series faces a different degree of pressure than other shows on the network, saying:
If those two don’t work, the show doesn’t work. But I think it’s pretty clear from the beginning they’re both incredibly soulful and give extraordinary performances. The love that has to develop between these two characters for you to care was there in spades.
So despite all the negative casting comments that followed Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey being locked in as Joel and Ellie, HBO's head honcho is more than convinced that the actors' on-screen relationship is palpable enough to draw fans in, even those without gaming habits or penchants for horror TV.
The Last of Us will make its long-awaited arrival on HBO on January 15, with episodes available to stream with an HBO Max subscription. Head to our 2023 TV premiere schedule to see what will else you’ll be able to click over to in the coming months.
