Original The Last of Us star was “skeptical” about the HBO show

For years, video game adaptations have had poor reputations, and rightly so: Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Person, Doom…all pretty bad. So when HBO announced they were making a live-action version of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us — one of the most celebrated games of all time — the stars of the original game were a little apprehensive.

Take Troy Baker (who plays Joel Miller in the game), who told Wired about his original thoughts towards the HBO show. Like many, he saw an adaptation as unnecessary, since the game told a complete story. At least, that was until creator Neil Druckmann made it clear that making a show would bring the story to millions of non-gamers:

"I had a very specific perspective on these characters. So much so that I was talking to Neil like, ‘We’ve already done this, we’ve already shot it, we’ve scored it, we’ve put it out there and people have experienced the story. So why do we do this?’ He goes, ‘Because at the end of the day, there are people that aren’t going to pick up a controller and play the story. And I believe that these characters can stand up on their own in any medium.’"

Even so, Baker remained on the fence until he picked up the script. At that point, he was totally on board. “There were moments in reading it where I was like, ‘Oh man, that’s really good.’ I wanted my version of it to be the only true version, but what I loved about going through the process of making the TV show is understanding that this iteration proves the merit of this story and the merit of these characters and the merit of this world because it’s relevant and applicable and resonant.”

While Baker is protective over Joel, he is open to other portrayals of the character. Throughout his career, he’s played numerous iconic characters, such as Batman. “It’s simply each actor, if they’ve done their job right, showing you a new layer of that character,” he said.

Troy Baker recalls meeting Bella Ramsey (Ellie) for the first time

The show plays homage to the games throughout, from music played to one-to-one recreations of certain scenes. It wouldn’t be right if some of the original cast didn’t get to have cameos. Baker appears in the show, playing a cannibal in a later episode. Ashley Johnson, who played Ellie in the game, also shows up. Merle Dandridge even reprises her role as Marlene.

Walking onto set for the first time was a surreal experience for Baker, particularly when he saw Bella Ramsey in Ellie’s signature costume.

"So I set foot on set, and I’ll never forget. First you go to base camp, and then they shuttle you off. So when I set foot on base camp, I walked past all the trailers where the cast were. And the door swings open to this one trailer, and out steps this girl in jeans and a red ratted T-shirt, and a cut on her forehead, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. And she just looks at me, and to her, this is normal. I’m the one that’s weird. And she says, “Hi.” And I was like, I’m looking at Ellie."

Ashley Johnson was pleasantly surprised, too. “I went up to her trailer, and I was weirdly really nervous,” she said. “I knocked on the door, and she came out and I was so very taken by her, because it felt like—I don’t mean this in a cheesy way, but I don’t know how else to say it—I felt like I was meeting Ellie.”

The Last of Us continues Sundays on HBO. Catch Episode 5 early this Friday night on HBO Max,

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