Anyone a fan of The Last of Us video games will be delighted with the latest bit of news to surface. It's now looking like Naughty Dog co-president and The Last of Us writer/director Neil Druckmann will be part of the core team handling directing duties for the highly anticipated HBO Max television series.
Video games being adapted to other forms of media - namely TV and film - have struggled in the past, so having Druckmann onboard to steer the ship is hugely reassuring. Hey, we have no idea how the series will turn out but having as much of the original creative team behind can only be a good thing, right? The first season will feature five directors, with Kantemir Balagov wrapping the pilot episode in August.
Druckmann has already been confirmed to be working alongside Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin behind the scenes, but now thanks to an updated listing on the Directors Guild of Canada website (via VGC), we can see he's now scheduled to direct. The show is set to be the first series from PlayStation Productions, with filming expected to end sometime in June 2022.
"The story takes place 20 years after modern civilisation has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival," reads the official synopsis for the show.
Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) is set to star as Joel, while Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) will play Ellie. No official release date has been slated yet, but there's a chance it could make its way to the streaming service in late 2022.
Originally launched in June 2013, The Last of Us has gone on to amass a huge legion of fans and one of the best-selling video games of all time at over 17 million units. The remastered version is now available on PS5 as part of the PS Plus collection and is a must-play for anyone that has missed out. Seriously, how have you not played this yet?
In the meantime, T3 has reached out to Sony for comment to see if we can find out any further information.
