According to Troy Baker, the voice of Joel from The Last of Us video game series, the upcoming HBO adaptation will come close to capturing the essence of the game that all the kids are bragging about!
In an interview with Fandom, the voice actor stated that “I think that episodically you can far more effectively tell this story because trying to condense that experience of 16 hours into 2 hours is impossible. It goes past the point of distillation, into reduction. I think being able to do this episodically and go, ‘We’ll do this for say, three or four seasons’ and be able to almost 1:1 tell [ the story of the game] presents a great opportunity for more people to experience this story.”
Baker realizes that the video game will always be “the last word” when it comes to the story, but “At the end of the day, man, the reason that it’s a game is because when you go from fall into winter — after Joel falls, and you think he’s dead — and you see that beautiful bunny on that pristine white snow, and the arrow… and then you notice for the first time that it’s Ellie by herself, standing there – and you push forward on the analogue stick — that is something that just doesn’t translate to any other medium but a game. Nothing else will ever beat that.”
No release date has been announced for HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation, but it’s a good bet that their will be a lot of news regarding shifting release dates if the television series follow the path of the video game that claims to be “The Last in Line” (with all credit to the late metal god Ronnie James Dio).
Be sure to check out HNN’s comprehensive coverage of the trials and tribulations of The Last Of Us II at your last stop for any news related to the video game.
