Another important point is that this wasn’t like a company buying the rights to something and saying, “I want to use this IP.” This was me and Neil Druckmann, the creator of the game, up here. HBO said, “We want to do this out of love.” So we approached it from a pure point of view.
What was the most difficult part of bringing the series to life?
size. More words to write, more days to plan, more actors to cast, more stunts to approve. It will be an endurance test. We were away from home filming for 200 days during the Covid-19 pandemic, and her wife couldn’t even come to the set because it was against coronavirus rules. It was very difficult to do day after day in heat, freezing cold, rain and snow. Still, we made it through. It’s like the woman who goes through childbirth and thinks, “Oh my God, I’m never doing that again,” and then years later, “Maybe I’ll do it again.” ’ I’m the kind of mom who “would like to do it again.”
What are you most looking forward to in Season 2?
I love tracking people’s growth and evolution, and I love how this show continues but does seasons that aren’t the same. The thing about The Last of Us is that the story is always in motion. We don’t live in the same neighborhood. We will not return to the same store or store or home. Even each episode within a season feels like you’re in a different place, a different kind of movie. So it’s more than that.
There are also many other popular video game franchises in the works, such as Twisted Metal, Ghost of Tsushima, and Assassin’s Creed, which are being made into movies and television. Can you recreate the models from The Last of Us?
Anything is possible if they start from a place of purity, a place of creative passion. Fans will be happy if the source material contains good elements to adapt to, and ideally if its creator has the generosity and intellectual flexibility of Neil Druckmann. You have a real chance to do something that not only makes you happy, but also makes new people happy. What’s the point of making a show if you’re only making it for people who read the books or play the games?
That’s why Neil tried to adapt in the first place. Millions of people never pick up a controller or play a game. They will never know this story and he wanted them to know it. And if people are working that way, they really have a chance.
