Avoiding The Walking Dead's Pitfalls: Lessons for HBO's The Last of Us

As the premiere of HBO’s The Last of Us draws near, early reviews and interviews with showrunner Craig Mazin and director Neil Druckmann suggest that the series will be a faithful adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game franchise.

However, there will be some minor changes made, such as the way the infection spreads among the zombies in the series as opposed to the spores seen in the video game. This change should not detract from the overall adaptation of the franchise.

Many fans will undoubtedly draw comparisons between The Last of Us and AMC’s The Walking Dead, which recently ended its 11-season run.

The Walking Dead actually had a clear blueprint to follow but allowed room for deviation from the source material. The Walking Dead’s creator, Robert Kirkman, was open to the writers of the series changing his source material as they saw fit.

Survival is everything. #TheLastOfUs premieres Sunday at 9PM on @HBOMax. pic.twitter.com/O9mVPAFc4h
— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) January 11, 2023

This is something that the creators of The Last of Us need to be aware of. In our opinion, such a mistake by Robert Kirkman was the reason why the show lost many of its fans along the way.

So, in case HBO wants The Last of Us to be a more successful TV show, they need to learn from this mistake of The Walking Dead.

It’s worth noting that Fear The Walking Dead, a spin-off of The Walking Dead, is also coming to an end with its 8th season airing on AMC. The series will consist of 12 episodes, with the first block premiering in May.