Naughty Dog co-chairman Neil Druckmann previously discovered that certain chapters of HBO's upcoming adaptation of The Last of Us will "depart significantly" from its source material. But interestingly, the timeline of Joel and Ellie's on-screen adventure is reversed as well.
In the game's timeline, the Cordyceps pandemic breaks out in XNUMX, and the main events of The Last of Us take place twenty years later (XNUMX). But in the HBO series, the proceedings begin in XNUMX, with the majority of the show's story set in XNUMX (as first discovered in promotional materials for The Last of Us (opens in a new window). little tab)).
Why the change? According to Druckmann, the decision to set The Last of Us in XNUMX was made to "help make it more real," showrunner Craig Mazin thinks TV shows can benefit from unfolding within familiar timeframes.
Speaking to TheComparison in a roundtable interview ahead of the HBO Max series' debut on January XNUMX, Mazin explained, "It was something I talked to Neil about from the beginning. It's a subtle difference. But I have this jumping into the I feel like if I watch a show and the year is XNUMX, and the show takes place in XNUMX, it's a little less real. Even if I watch a show in XNUMX and it takes place in XNUMX , it's a little bit less real. So I thought it would be interesting to just say, “Hey, look, in this parallel cosmos, it's happening now.” It's happening this year.
Mazin also clarified that the decision to move the series' timeline forward had little impact on the nature-stricken aesthetic of The Last of Us' post-apocalyptic settings. It hasn't altered more than giving us a slightly different palette of directions and options for scenery and cars," explained the Chernobyl creator. "But it's interesting that as we progressed through the series and kept finding new locations and relics from the old world, we kept going back to that XNUMX vibe. So it was just about helping people connect a little bit more and just that.
Druckmann, for his part, was pleased with Mazin's preference for setting The Last of Us in the present, trusting his partner's response by saying that "if it helps make it more real, then that's a change worth considering." grief.
"It's one of those things where there's no clear answer," Druckmann added. "We were already so far away from XNUMX, so I felt like it needed some kind of change, and I realized how confident Craig was to do the majority of the show today. It was one of those changes that didn't feel quite right." if we were essentially moving what's on point, so I joined.
So here it is, friends. We'll be sharing more from Druckmann, Mazin, and series stars Pedro Pascal and Preciosa Ramsey in the coming days, before The Last of Us premieres on HBO Max in the US on January XNUMX. Viewers of the R. United will be able to see the program on Sky Atlantic and Now at the same time from the sixteenth of January. We hope it deserves a spot on our list of the best HBO Max shows.