HBO officially orders a full season of The Last of Us

HBO is officially giving us a full season of The Last of Us, based on the acclaimed video games. Now who should play Joel and Ellie?

We’ve known for a while that HBO was developing a show based on The Last of Us, the highly acclaimed video game from Naughty Dog. Set in the not-too-distant future after the world has been devastated by a zombie apocalypse (yep, it’s another one of those), the original game (and its sequel) has been widely praised for its tense, contemplative narrative. Making the jump to TV shouldn’t be that hard.

Video game adaptations have a reputation for being subpar, but if there’s any game that can break the cycle, it’s this one. HBO also has some serious talent behind it. The show will be written by Neil Druckmann, who wrote the story for The Last of Us and Uncharted games, and Craig Mazin, the guy behind HBO’s critically lauded historical series Chernobyl. Carolyn Strauss, who was an executive producer on Game of Thrones, is also on board.

“Craig and Neil are visionaries in a league of their own,” said HBO Programming Executive Vice President Francesca Orsi. “With them at the helm alongside the incomparable Carolyn Strauss, this series is sure to resonate with both die-hard fans of ‘The Last of Us’ games and newcomers to this genre-defining saga. We’re delighted to partner with Naughty Dog, Word Games, Sony and PlayStation to adapt this epic, powerfully immersive story.”

Sony, which published the games, is also psyched. Sony Pictures Television Studios President Jeff Frost and Head of PlayStation Productions Asad Qizilbash made a joint statement: “PlayStation’s innovative storytelling and ingenuity is a natural complement to SPT’s creative focus. Our collaboration is a great example of our ‘One Sony’ philosophy at work. We look forward to developing even more iconic game IP in the future.”

There’s even a little synopsis: it does indeed sound like the first season will follow the first game, with hardened survivor Joel smuggling 14-year-old Ellie out of an oppressive quarantine zone. In the games, Ellie may hold the key to creating a vaccine that can put an end to things, and together they trek across a zombie-ravaged United States.

There’s no word on who will play Joel and Ellie, but we’re full of suggestions:

We also got a bit of art. Check out the show’s rendering of the Firefly logo:

In the games, the Fireflies are a revolutionary militia group fighting against military oppression in quarantine zones across the country. That sounds nice, but they can be brutal too, and Joel and Ellie will find themselves both working with the organization and against it at varying points.

There’s no word on a release date yet, but this could be one to look out for. There’s also no word on whether the show will just adapt the first game or move on to the much more controversial The Last of Us Part II, which came out earlier this year. I suppose they get do the first series and see how they feel.

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