Neil Druckmann found it “too cute” at first.
In a lengthy interview over at the New Yorker, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin revealed a lot of juicy details about the soon-to-release HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, set to premiere on January 15, 2023, and key among them was that the show would feature “an infected individual unlike those seen in the game,” which required the consultation of Naughty Dog’s concept artists.
Naughty Dog is the PlayStation-owned studio that developed the original video game the show is based on. The Last of Us first released in 2013 and is seen by many as one of the greatest video game stories of all time. Given the recent rise of video game adaptations, it only makes sense for The Last of Us to get a turn. This particular adaptation is luckily being made under the guidance of original its creator, Druckmann.
The article didn’t explain why this new infected type was created beyond that “the script called for [it],” but it did state that Mazin sat down with Naughty Dog’s VFX supervisor Alex Wang to assess the results of the latest rendering. Druckmann was concerned that it looked “too cute,” but Mazin assured him that “the creature would appear monstrous on-screen.” It was described as female, with darkened hair “after years underground.”
Druckmann also revealed that the rendition of co-protagonist Joel in The Last of Us HBO would be “less resilient.” The game version of Joel has seemingly unmatched strength when facing any enemy in a fistfight, but Mazin wanted the toll of Joel’s mercenary life to be more noticeable. Apparently, he’s hard of hearing in one hear due to gunfire and suffers from knee pain. “I like my middle-aged people middle-aged,” said Mazin.
Mazin also had an interesting comparison to make when discussing the killing of human enemies in The Last of Us. He explained that when you replay a certain section in the game, everyone you killed is back and moving around in the same order, which makes them feel more like obstacles than human beings. “Watching a person die,” said Mazin, “I think, ought to be much different than watching pixels die.” The article added that “in the show, such encounters would carry more weight.”
