Craig Mazin refused to compromise on a huge detail in ‘The Last of Us’ episode seven

This week’s episode of The Last of Us steered away from the narrative of the core game and into a piece of vital downloadable content in ‘Left Behind’, which documents a few hours of Ellie’s life shortly prior to meeting Joel, and her relationship with series newcomer Riley. 

The pair spent the episode exploring an abandoned mall in the Boston Quarantine Zone – and the set of said shopping complex was of great importance to showrunner Craig Mazin. 

On HBO’s The Last of Us Podcast, Mazin detailed the process behind securing a location in which to shoot ‘Left Behind’, with their initial single-storey set not living up to the ‘magical’ allure that the showrunner was expecting. As such, the team behind HBO’s The Last of Us opted to combine the real-world location with visual effects to add a second storey. 

Mazin goes into specifics about the iconic shot when the mall finally lights up, which was shot on a soundstage surrounded by a blue screen and how he pressed the visual effects team to ‘make it work’. He explains his reasoning behind going to huge lengths to preserve the game’s original mall:

“There are these phrases people use in Hollywood, and one that I hate the most is, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?” I f****** hate that. The answer is, yes it is. It is worth the squeeze. Is it worth it for this one marquee shot where this world comes to life? Yes! And does doing that mean that throughout everything else we’re going to need to continually show this other floor above it and it’s going to be money, and time… Yes. Because we need to know that they’re in a place that is magical, and connects back to the world we know.”

Attention to detail is certainly something that The Last of Us spared no expense on, and the show is all the better for it. If only the show’s editing room was as meticulous. 

The Last of Us is back on HBO Max next Sunday, for the second last time.