The days are ticking down to the launch of the series adaptation of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s video game for PlayStation consoles that will be released on the small screen on January 15 through HBO Max.
The premiere is just a week away and we continue to know some of the ins and outs of the creation of this adaptation thanks to interviews that Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, top executives of the series, have given to El Español.
This new volume contains some of the most interesting statements such as how simple the birth of the series really was, which arose after a meeting between Druckmann and Mazin with the former being dazzled by Chernobyl and by the latter’s understanding of the material of The Last of Us which led him to embark on the project of making a series about his video game.
“Let’s say we wanted to do a series of The Last of Us on HBO, what would it be like, what would the process be like, would it be complicated, would they be up for it,” Neil Druckmman asked Craig Mazin in a new meeting, to which he replied confidently, “It’s very simple, we go across the street, which is where their offices are, we tell them we want this to be their next project and they’ll make it their next project.”
Mr. Mazin took the reins of the presentation
And that was “basically what happened” as the authors said, because shortly after they met with HBO and here the surprising thing was that Mazin was the one in charge of presenting the project, which, in spite of what we can imagine at first (after all, Neil Druckmman is one of the most responsible for the game) was a success.
This is because the co-president of Naughty Dog himself assured that he had presented the story of The Last of Us so many times that he wasn’t moved anymore until he saw Mazin present it to the HBO executives.
“That’s when I found myself excited again because someone else is presenting it in such an efficient and truthful way to what it was. I’ve never had a partner like this who understands the play even better than I do. At times he talks about issues in the game better than I can,” commented Druckmman.
After this single meeting, HBO managers were delighted with the idea and began the process of creating the series that we will watch in a week’s time on HBO Max.
