While it’s true that Neil Druckmann only served as co-director on The Last of Us, there’s no doubt that the video game franchise as a whole wouldn’t have become such an enormous hit without his creative input.
In that sense, it shouldn’t come off as much of a surprise that Druckmann has been closely associated with the development process, ever since HBO announced plans to adapt the critically acclaimed title from Naughty Dog into a TV show. Indeed, the Uncharted 4 director is not only producing and writing scripts for the series, but he’ll also be bringing his skills at helming a project to a different medium if a new document from DGC (Directors Guild of Canada) is anything to go by, as you can see for yourself below.
It’s still unclear how many episodes Druckmann will take on himself, since others like co-producer Craig Mazin, or Jasmila Zbanic, Peter Hoar, and Kantemir Balagov were also mentioned in the document.
Still, knowing that the creator is even more involved than we initially thought must be enough to flood the more sceptical fans with relief, especially those who continually voice doubt as to whether HBO’s The Last of Us will end up like the other failed video game adaptations. If anything, history has proven time and time again that video game movies are incredibly difficult to make work and it’d take something truly special to break the curse.
Based on earlier reports, production began earlier this year in July, and filming will apparently continue well into the summer of 2022, if everything goes according to plan, which, nowadays, it rarely does in the entertainment industry. With a bit of luck, though, the first season will still premiere sometime late next year.
