How failed The Last of Us adaptations finally led to the HBO show

Image: The Last of Us/HBO

The Last of Us, HBO's adaptation of Naughty Dog's zombie video game series, is on its way. This could be a big one. The Last of Us games are widely beloved, not just for their gameplay but for their characters and story, which isn't always a focus in video games. If any video game series can work onscreen, it's this one.

And indeed, studios have been trying to adapt The Last of Us since the game released on PlayStation 3 back in 2013. "One production company said, ‘You guys are really good with gameplay, we’ll take the story from here and refine it,’" creator Neil Druckmann told The Hollywood Reporter. "I’m like, ‘They don't respect what's there. They just see it as a marketing opportunity.’ "

Druckmann went on to work on a movie version with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, but that wasn't a good fit either. "Sam gave really solid notes, but it was an impossible task," he said. Druckmann was told to add more spectacular action set pieces in the vein of World War Z, which was big at the time. But with The Last of Us, Druckmann had told a story about a zombie apocalypse that was completely focused on the characters. He began to hope that the movie project would die, and he got his wish.

Later, Druckmann hooked up with Craig Mazin, the guy behind the HBO miniseries Chernobyl. That show, which highlighted how small human failures could lead to catastrophic results, was a much better fit for The Last of Us.

So the two linked arms and pitched the idea to the top brass at HBO, including executive Casey Bloys. "I’m not a gamer; the last video game I played was [Smurf: Rescue in Gargamel's Castle] on ColecoVision," Bloys said. "My mind wasn't on whether video game adaptations in the past have failed. I approached this as: Is it a great TV show? And I loved [Danny Boyle's 2002 zombie film] 28 Days Later. So the idea that Craig wanted to do a big genre show was not a hard sell for me."

After that, the biggest task was to cast the two leads: Joel the hardened survivor of a zombie apocalypse, and Ellie the precocious youth he has to escort across the ruined countryside.

Joel will be played by The Mandalorian veteran Pedro Pascal. That part was easy to cast. Ellie was harder. According to Druckmann, they needed someone who could appear "tough and vulnerable and wise beyond [their] years and also have a potential for violence." They saw "dozens and dozens" of auditions, but is the one sent in by Game of Thrones alum Bella Ramsey that clicked. "Bella felt so real," Druckmann said. "It was like Ellie realized in live action. It didn't feel like watching an actor."

Ramsey had played the fierce Lyanna Mormont on Game of Thrones, so Mazin reached out to showrunner David Benioff and Dan Weiss to ask about her. Obviously, they assured Mazin that Ramsey was "an absolute joy on set." She landed the role of Ellie in under a month.

"Ellie felt like a character I already had in me," Ramsey said. "Like the skins that you wear in a video game? She was one of my skins already."

So both leads were cast and both leads were great. But they had never done a chemistry read together. The first time they met was awkward: on the production's sexual harassment prevention Zoom call.

Still, the two formed a solid working relationship quickly, both of them preparing for the onslaught of Last of Us fans they knew would have strong opinions about their casting. Pascal would also advise Ramsey when she was feeling uneasy about her performance. "I would wake up in the night thinking about it," she said of one scene. "I’d lose sleep over it because I felt like I could have done it better."

"If those two don't work, the show doesn't work," Bloys said "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."

The Last of Us premieres on HBO on Sunday, January 15.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels