Warning: This piece contains full spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.
The last of us is part of the ongoing craze of faithful video game adaptations with traceable origins all the way back for the original Silent Hill movie. However, adapting a game like The Last of Us Part II is somewhat different from adapting its predecessor, not only because it has a more complicated, fractured narrative, but also because it is (phenomenal) plays with much more dramatic meat to explore, both in terms of sheer length and the spikier dimensions it brings out of its characters. To create a show true to its inspiration, it will likely have to make some major departures from its source material. While die-hard fans may cry, that may be the only way this adaptation can feel as relevant as the game.
Co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who is also the inventive director of The Last of Us games, agrees. I’m talking to Diversity when it comes to the adaptation process, he noted that a common mistake is “to stick so close to the source material, which was built, designed and written for this other medium, which has strengths and weaknesses, and try to translate it as it is, without any changes including a different medium that has different strengths and weaknesses.” Looking at the newly released first trailer for season two, we can already see the first signs that Druckmann and his creative partner Craig Mazin may have changed the original story to suit the television medium.
Season II.
HBO original series #TheLastOfUs returns in 2025 on Max. #TLODay pic.twitter.com/Wdsk759JIg
— Maks (@StreamOnMax) September 26, 2024
Different media, different priorities
With so much artistic media out there these days, it’s sometimes hard to remember that video games and television are two very different things. Each way of telling a story has advantages and disadvantages that are practically inextricably linked to the form. The narrative techniques that work so well in interactive fiction in terms of scene geography, atmosphere, environmental design, and the use of player expression often don’t translate into something that has a set runtime and requires no input from the viewer.
That doesn’t mean you can’t try. The first season of The Last of Us meticulously recreated many moments from the game’s cutscenes, sometimes literally frame by frame. But what is this really for? The plot worked perfectly the first time, the gameplay is in its best-ever form in The Last of Us Part I Remastered, and the cutscenes are easily available on YouTube. If people want a truly accurate version of this story, it already exists and has been for years. In any case, taking the approach of cloning cutscenes, rather than allowing the show’s direction and cinematography to present major story moments in entirely new ways, only highlighted the way the original games often strayed from the strengths of interactive storytelling. It is thanks to creator Naughty Dog’s use of non-interactive storytelling techniques that such scenes can easily be inserted directly into a television program.
I say this as a huge fan of both games: in a way, they were already HBO shows. They do use the possibilities of interactive storytelling to their advantage, but when it comes to basic scene construction and direction, even in playable segments, there is a liberal use of prestige television techniques and stylistic conventions. So it’s not just ironic that the games ended up being adapted into an HBO show; it was so simple Down adapt them because the games have already done a lot of work. This is not to discount any of the contributions of the show’s directors, writers, and performers, but the blueprint for a successful TV show has already been implemented in the game. So if the next season wants to be the best, it would be good to find a new way to present a story that many of us already know.
Develop and discover
Even though it was faithful to the original game, the first season of The Last of Us often benefited from deviations. The hiring of Latino actor Pedro Pascal gave a strong new take on the main character Joel, giving him a softer, father-like character compared to Troy Baker’s gruff nature, adding new characters such as Kathleen played by Melanie Lynskey, expanded the post-apocalyptic world explored in the original game, and dedicating an entire episode to the never-before-seen story of Bill (Nick Offerman) and his lover Frank (Murray Bartlett) led to what many consider the season’s highlight best post. Unlike video games, which typically require some sort of consistency in the player’s perspective through the character being controlled, television provides the ability to shift focus more easily, and the series made great use of this in key areas.
In the second season, this technique should be used with greater effect. One of the main structural assumptions of Part II is to play out the same three days from the perspective of Ellie and Abby. Their separate paths only really cross at the end of the three days, as they both go through incredibly personal journeys of revenge and rebirth, respectively, which means that each of the main characters basically disappears from the narrative for about ten solid hours each. This makes sense in a video game, as jumping between characters in each level would be irritating for the player and would never allow them to truly settle into the peaks and valleys of power and equipment that a survival action game is intended to support. But do we really want to watch four or five episodes in a row without Ellie and Abby showing up?
Breaking up their journey and finding ways to draw thematic parallels between Ellie and Abby, even if they’re not in the same physical space, would help maintain emotional continuity and the viewer’s engagement with both characters. After all, the whole point of the prolonged period leading up to their confrontation is that it’s a battle we don’t want either side to “win” because we’ve come to empathize with their experiences. It’s hard for viewers at home to get through it if the character is off TV for a few weeks. We also know that season 2 I won’t adjust the whole thing Part II, which gives creators plenty of freedom to add or develop characters, subplots, and world-building concepts that could give the series a fresh feel. If the trailer is anything to go by, we may have already seen hints that the series is heading in this direction.
Trust the process
It’s a minor detail, but the teaser trailer hints at what could be a major departure from the original game’s setup: it looks like Abby will be spending time in Jackson with Joel and Ellie. After Abby’s first encounter with Joel and Tommy, during which they save her from an Infection trying to get to her through a chain-link fence (a scene ripped straight from the game), we later see a shot of the three of them running away on horses from what appears to be a horde of Infected attacking the Jackson border wall. There is also an earlier shot of a large group of infected spotted through binoculars running through the snow, indicating that they are heading towards Jackson, the only area in the game where snow occurs. All of this suggests that there may be a sequence where Abby and Joel return to Jackson and have more interaction than in the game (possibly even involving Ellie) before Abby kills Joel. Such a sequence would have been a great opportunity for more character dramatization, and it would also have given us more scenes with Pascal before he’s relegated to flashback.
Abby sneaking into Jackson’s community (concept art for the second game’s story arc confirms that the developers took this into account) and perhaps even casting her as an ally to help them defeat the infected attack would provide us with more context and internal conflict, giving the scene , where he finally reveals his true motives, a greater sense of drama. We have little time with Abby before she kills Joel in the game, which is a shocking scene in its original form, but viewers at home may feel a little lost if someone they consider one of the show’s two main characters is killed so suddenly in the first few episodes. Getting us into Abby’s head earlier so we know exactly what she’s planning and why is the kind of change that would have helped smooth out the development of the plot. And let’s be honest, more Kaitlyn Dever is never a bad thing (you’ve seen it Nobody will save you? She was very good at it.)
Ultimately, we don’t know exactly how the second season of The Last of Us will turn out, but based on the first season, it’s safe to say that the creative team behind the series can have some confidence. There’s an array of killer talent involved in the production, and while such a beloved game series may inspire strong protective feelings in fans, it can be rewarding to let an adaptation of an already familiar story surprise you. The game isn’t going anywhere. History will always exist in this form. So let’s have a little faith and see what the differences in the new season will add to the story, instead of assuming they will only take away from it.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and essays about Mass Effect. You can track his fixations Twitter.
