The Final of Us’ co-creators say a TV present was at all times ‘lurking inside the sport’

Earlier than its gaggles of fungus-infected, flesh-eating berserkers burst their approach onto the display screen, HBO’s The Final of Us might be simply mistaken for quite a few different apocalyptic zombie reveals about survivors preventing for his or her lives. As a result of it holds up so nicely as a sequence, it won’t be apparent to viewers unfamiliar with The Final of Us’ origins how Joel, Ellie, and the story of the cordyceps pandemic all started as components of a blockbuster online game. 

Between being so devoted to the sport’s story and including new depth to its characters, it’s no surprise that longtime followers have been fast to name HBO’s present probably the greatest online game diversifications of all time. However as The Final of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann and sequence showrunner Craig Mazin see it, one of many greatest causes their new venture works so nicely is as a result of deep — although maybe not too deep — down inside, a tv present was at all times hiding throughout the sport and ready to be dropped at life.

Once I caught up with Mazin and Druckmann not too long ago forward of The Final of Us’ premiere this weekend, the duo had been as effusive of their reward of each other as they had been excited in regards to the public lastly having the ability to see their long-awaited child.

Mazin, who was already a fan of The Final of Us when he first received the decision about adapting it for tv, stated that whereas he was positively eager on leaning into among the smaller particulars he’s at all times liked in regards to the sequence, he was instantly struck by how simply the sport lent itself to translation throughout mediums.

“We provide you with a starting and an finish each week,” Mazin stated. “And one of many lovely issues about The Final of Us is that Neil, naturally, despite the fact that he was creating it for gameplay, he naturally created a narrative that felt like there have been beginnings and ends.”

Much like the sport, The Final of Us follows the pair on their cross-country journey towards a gaggle of individuals hoping to create a treatment for the fungal pandemic. Whereas the present highlights how far they need to journey — typically on foot and generally by way of brutal climate — it additionally contains a handful of jumps ahead to maintain issues feeling like they’re shifting. As they first started breaking down the present’s story and mapping out the primary season’s form, Mazin stated that he more and more felt like there’d at all times been “a tv present lurking inside that online game attempting to get out” due to how episodic the sport’s missions already built-in time jumps made it really feel.

Although Druckmann agreed with Mazin’s evaluation of the sport’s missions feeling nearly like serialized installments of a narrative, he additionally described the sport’s construction as being deliberately much less even — “a bit messier and a bit looser” by comparability. Druckmann stated that for the variation, it was essential to substitute a few of that narrative imbalance for thriller meant to depart you asking questions.

“Then, as a viewer, you get to fill within the blanks like what occurred in between these areas,” Druckmann stated, referring to back-to-back episodes that happen months aside. “I believe that’s among the enjoyable of cinematic storytelling, and we received to do extra of that with the present — some issues are subdivided even additional than they had been within the video games, and then you definately get these jumps that depart you asking ‘wait, what occurred between that half and that half?’”

There’s no “proper” technique to play The Final of Us as you’re guiding Joel and Ellie by way of ruined cities infested with clickers that come charging the place they hear loud noises. Charging in weapons blazing is one possibility that runs the chance of creating the sport tougher. However the unique The Final of Us additionally presents utilizing stealth and cleverness as viable methods of surviving, and it was essential to Mazin — a self-professed “stealth man” — that the present’s motion displays a mix of various play types whereas additionally working to assist viewers higher perceive Joel.

“One of many attention-grabbing issues about stealth in actual life is that it’s laborious,” Mazin stated. “Exhausting, particularly if you’re a 55-year-old man who’s lived by way of 20 laborious years. Our Joel? His knees damage; his again hurts. He runs with a hitch. Pedro [Pascal] invested loads of simply {old} ache in Joel’s physique that he has to combat by way of.“

Mazin and Druckmann stated that quite than spotlighting stealth as a mere mechanic, they wished the present to emphasise stealth as a way of survival as a result of that’s the kind of mindset that Joel, Ellie, and nearly all of The Final of Us’ characters reside with. Together with the present’s general construction, actually conveying simply how desperately persons are preventing to remain alive are issues Druckmann and Mazin each assume that HBO’s The Final of Us has gotten proper. They usually attributed that to their group’s ardour each for this particular venture and the sport that began all of it.

“We had individuals journey the world over — depart different reveals in order that they might be a part of this one as a result of they had been such huge followers of the sport,” Druckmann stated. “We had basically a military of individuals desirous to do proper by the sport. I believe that’s extraordinarily uncommon and one thing I don’t take as a right.”