HBO is turning the hit game The Last of Us into a TV series, as the The Hollywood Reporter revealed today.
The show will take inspiration from the original game, which came out for the PlayStation 3 back in 2013. This announcement comes as gaming has begun to become a good source for TV inspiration thanks to hits like Castlevania and The Witcher. The Last of Us became a big hit with its story about a grieving father escorting a teenage girl across a post-apocalyptic America filled with scavengers and zombie-like creatures. It won multiple Game of the Year awards and sold over 17 million copies.
The game is getting a sequel this year. The Last of Us Part II is coming to PlayStation 4 on May 29.
Neil Druckmann, director for both games, is working on the show as an executive producer. Craig Mazin is joining him; he’s the creator of the HBO 2019 miniseries Chernobyl.
Naughty Dog is the developer behind The Last of Us. Another one of its franchises, Uncharted, has been in development for a motion picture adaption for years. Right now, Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, and Antonio Banderas are set to star.
Games invade TV
Video games adaptations have flooded the big screen for years and have found little success. However, TV is looking like it could be a more suitable home for the character-filled stories from gaming.
Netflix has turned Castlevania into a hit animated series, with its third season debuting today. Netflix also found a ton of success by creating a live-action show based on The Witcher. And while The Witcher started as a series of novels, the franchise is most known outside of its home country of Poland for its role-playing games.
If The Last of Us is a hit on TV, we should expect to see many more video games invade television.