'Chernobyl.' Courtesy HBO
Television

Chernobyl Creator Tackling Adaptation of Post-Apocalyptic Video Game The Last of Us for HBO

March 5, 2020
By The Credits

Well, this is interesting. Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin will be developing the adaptation of the popular post-apocalyptic video game The Last of Us for HBO. Mazin, who of course knows a thing or two about real-life dystopias (Chernobyl was, among many other things, one of the most convincing portrayals of what an actual apocalypse might look like), will be taking on the adaptation with the game’s writer, Neil Druckman. Both HBO and Mazin tweeted out the news:

The Hollywood Reporter broke the story, which details how unique Druckmann’s involvement is. Most often, when a video game is developed for television or film, the folks who worked on the original game aren’t much involved. Here, however, Druckmann will executive produce and write with Mazin. HBO has tapped Carolyn Strauss, a Game of Thrones alum (she was an executive producer), to take on that role here. The Last of Us video game was developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It came out in 2013.

The game was a critical hit, showing a realistic, harrowing vision of a post-apocalyptic world. The story was centered on a smuggler named Joe and a teenager named Ellie, the latter of whom might hold the cure to the pandemic that decimated the world (scarily topical, obviously).

THR reports that Mazin and Druckmann’s series for HBO will cover the events of the original game, which was written by Druckmann. It’s a promising, if depressingly topical subject, for Mazin to tackle after his critically acclaimed, insanely absorbing Chernobyl.

For more on Chernobyl, check out our interviews with Mazin himself, one of the show’s directors, and star Jared Harris.

Featured image: ‘Chernobyl.’ Courtesy HBO

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The Credits

The Credits is an online magazine that tells the story behind the story to celebrate our large and diverse creative community. Focusing on profiles of below-the-line filmmakers, The Credits celebrates the often uncelebrated individuals who are indispensable to the films and TV shows we love.