The Last of Us from video game to TV series

It is one of the most popular and reviewed games in recent years. Created for the Playstation "world", The Last of Us is one of the most popular titles on the

Sony console.

A huge success, which allowed the title to "cross" the boundaries of the product, becoming not only a game but also a TV series much awaited by fans.

The Last of Us

The Last of Us is a third-person adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation 3., PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows.

Announced at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, the game was released two years later for PlayStation 3.

Updated and remastered, the game called The Last of Us remastered was released the following year for Playstation 4.

Eight years later, in 2022, a third version of the game comes out, which features some important new features, as well as an adaptation for PlayStation 5.

Considered by critics and players as one of the best video games of all time, The Last of Us has won more than 250 awards with its various versions.

The Last of Us is an action game that combines elements of role-playing, adventure and survival. It takes place in a dystopian future where an epidemic has destroyed most of the human population and transformed infected people into violent creatures.

The player plays Joel, a man who is tasked with escorting 14-year-old Ellie across the plague-ravaged country to a group of rebels who believe Ellie may be the key to finding a cure.

The game is known for its intense and engaging narrative that explores themes such as love, loss, hope and survival. The characters are well written and the player can interact with them through dialogues and gameplay decisions.

The Last of Us also has intense and challenging gameplay, where the player has to face hostile enemies and environments while trying to complete the mission. The player can collect and use weapons and resources to fight enemies and overcome obstacles.

The Last of Us, game plot

The game is set in the same year as its release. It's 2013 and an epidemic generated by a mutated fungus from the Cordyceps family hits the United States of America. The epidemic transforms humans into aggressive creatures.

The prologue of the story features the Miller family. In the suburbs of Austin, Joel Miller escapes the chaos with his brother Tommy and his thirteen-year-old daughter Sarah. However, the latter is hit by a soldier during her escape and dies in her father's arms.

This event apparently separate from the rest of the story (which resumes in 2033) will instead be decisive for its continuation.

Twenty years later Joel is a mature man, a smuggler, who is commissioned after various vicissitudes and in the form of blackmail, to accompany Ellie, a young fourteen-year-old across the country still shocked by chaos. Ellie is not a normal little girl, but the only hope of finding a cure for the virus, given that although she was infected she did not undergo the transformation that occurred in all the other infected people.

The journey will last almost a year through adverse weather conditions, gangs and various problems.

An expansion called Left Behind was then added to the original game . In the same, two episodes are added to the main campaign.

The game is divided into twelve chapters which can also be played individually after completing the game itself.

The graphics are also noteworthy, with accurate reconstructions of American cities and views. During the course of the game, the player passes through "post-apocalyptic" versions of Lincoln, Pittsburgh, Jackson, Colorado and Salt Lake City,

Inspiration

The game is evidently and acknowledgedly inspired by scientific events (the Cordyceps fungus really exists and infects the brains of ants) and other films and comics. Experts will in fact find common elements with “I Am Legend”, “No Country for Old Men” and “The Walking Dead”.

From game to comic

Before leading to the creation of a TV series, the game also led to the creation of a four-volume comic. In “The Last of Us: the American dream” Ellie's youth is told before meeting Joel and her friend Riley.

From game to TV series

Given the success of the game , which has continued for years since its launch, a television series inspired by the same was announced in March 2020.

The series scheduled for release in spring 2023 is the television adaptation of the game . In the same, the actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey impersonate the protagonists of the game in a path that follows that of the game itself.

The pre-release reception of this series has been very positive, with the producer, HBO, already announcing a second series of a further nine episodes.

The TV series is a first consecration and transposition onto film after various failed attempts. Shortly after the game's release, a feature film created by game director Neil Druckmann and an animated short film produced by Sony were announced, but in both cases the projects were stopped in their tracks.

The series coming out in recent months is therefore the first complete transposition of the game.

There is a lot of curiosity about it, in particular with fans who are wondering if it will completely follow the game or if it will have a different progression.

The confirmed news of a second series has instilled further doubts, which will only be "revealed" by those who see both series.

Some curiosities about The Last of Us, the series

Filmed almost entirely in Canada, to be precise in the Calgary area, the series was also filmed in some areas of the USA, to be precise in Edmonton, Kansas City and near Boston (where the quarantine area was recreated).

Promotion and reception

The first trailer for the series was broadcast on HBO Max in August 2022. A first trailer was released a month later, and the final trailer was released in December of the same year.

The first episode of the series was screened in early January 2023 in Westwood, California, New Your and in the Hungarian capital Budapest.

The launch of the series which has already achieved great success and interest is scheduled for the first days of March 2023.