‘The Last of Us’ creator names the other hit video game franchise that inspired episode 7’s photobooth scene

There’s emotional, and then there’s The Last of Us-grade emotional, and with episode seven of HBO Max’s darling drama series having made its rounds, the series is showing no signs of slowing its momentum with that particular reputation.

So far, we’ve had our hearts turned inside out by Bill and Frank’s Arcadian lovelife in “Long, Long Time,” by the tragedy that befell Henry and Sam in “Endure and Survive,” and now, in “Left Behind,” the duty fell to Ellie and her best friend/more than a best friend Riley to make a mark on our tear ducts. With The Last of Us making the jump from the original video game to the infinitely more storytelling-equipped medium of television, such a goal was realized without so much as a bump in the road.

But, as they say, you should never forget where you came from, and The Last of Us just happens to come from Naughty Dog, a game studio known for taking its emotional story beats quite seriously. During the seventh episode of The Last of Us‘ official podcast, showrunner Neil Druckmann, who also wrote and directed the original game for Naughty Dog, revealed how the studio’s bread and butter, most famously utilized in the Uncharted series, was drawn upon for the game’s photobooth scene.

We had this idea of [the photobooth], and it would be a moment that could be made interactive; you could choose what poses you wanted to do, so there’s a bit of agency for the player there as far as shaping how that experience goes. Ultimately, that moment is about a cracking of the dam, of seeing how these girls are starting to telegraph to each other that there is more here than just friendship; that was the purpose for it in the game.

This purpose then served as the emotional end-goal for the scene’s television counterpart that we got during yesterday’s episode.

In the game, it was this huge investment. We used to be known for these set pieces, like in Uncharted; one of the most famous ones is you’re in this building that’s being shot with missiles by this helicopter, and you’re fighting these enemies, and you dynamically jump out of it just as it’s crashing around you, and it took this massive effort for the whole studio to pull off. It was kinda the same for this photobooth, but for the people that experienced it [in the game], it had that same impact.

Perhaps, though, this would beg the question of why Uncharted wasn’t simply a movie in the first place either, but after that misfire that Tom Holland and co. gave us, we probably don’t have to explore that question too deeply.

The Last of Us is available to stream on HBO Max, with new episodes releasing every Sunday until the season finale on March 12. A second season has been announced.