The Last of Us – the game vs TV show: How HBO series compares to best-selling Playstation original

As The Last of Us wows audiences and critics around the world, some are already hailing it as one of the best shows to air this year.

HBO seems to have struck gold with the show, which follows a smuggler trying to escort a teenage girl through a post-apocalyptic United States following a global pandemic that has turned millions of people into fungus-infected zombies.

The first episode has been watched by more than 22 million viewers since it premiered in the United States, the network’s second-biggest debut since 2010 behind House of the Dragon, and has already been renewed for a second season.

The series is based on an immensely popular PlayStation game of the same name, and has already been hailed by some critics as the best video game adaptation of all time.

Adapting video games for television or film has always been a challenge, and some have been more successful than others.

The Last of Us video game, which was released in 2013 by publisher Naughty Dog, garnered widespread praise and praise for its story, visuals, gameplay, and characters.

HBO bought the rights to adapt the property after a joint pitch by Craig Mazin, who had directed the hit show Chernobyl, and Neil Druckmann, who was a writer and creative director on the original game.

Many fans were eager to see how the show would translate to the screen, including the actors who would play the characters they had come to know and love.

So how do the characters in the video game compare to their TV versions?

Joel Miller (Pedro Pascual)

Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal first got his big break in another HBO series, Game of Thrones, where he played the arrogant and charismatic Oberyn Martell.

In the series, he plays Joel Miller, the smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl across the United States and protecting her from fungus-infected humans as well as muggers and vigilantes.

Pascal claimed that he ignored the producers’ instructions not to play the game before filming the series and admitted that he had never heard of it before landing the role and only wanted to work with HBO and Mazin.

He said cabling: ‘I hadn’t heard of the game. His instruction was ‘don’t play the game’. I ignored them. I tried to play the game, and it was very, very bad at it. But my nephew was fantastic.

“It was important to me to play notes that were directly related to what was originally in the game: physically, visually, and vocally.”

Ellie Williams (Bella Ramsey)

The central character of The Last of Us series, Ellie, is first introduced to players and viewers as a 14-year-old orphan who needs to be escorted across the United States by Joel.

In the series, she is played by Bella Ramsey, who, like her co-star Pascal, got her big break on HBO’s Game of Thrones, where she played the no-nonsense young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont.

The Nottingham-born actress, who has also appeared on the BBC’s His Dark Materials and CBBC’s The Worst Witch, has wowed critics with her performance, but revealed that she almost didn’t audition for the role.

Ramsey, who earlier this month came out as genderfluid, told the hollywood reporter: ‘I seriously considered that maybe I don’t want to be famous, so I’m not going to do this show because it’s going to take me somewhere I don’t want to go in terms of being seen and known. ‘

Despite only appearing briefly in-game and in one episode of the series, Sarah’s death early in the narrative casts a heavy shadow over Joel.

As the plot progresses, Joel begins to see a lot of his daughter in Ellie, as she grapples with her tragic murder at the hands of soldiers during the early stages of the outbreak.

In the series, she is played by British actress Nico Parker, the daughter of Thandiwe Newton, who turned out to be a huge hit with viewers who were captivated by her convincing performance.

One fan wrote: “So far The Last of Us is perfectly cast, but Nico Parker’s performance as Sarah was phenomenal. THAT scene broke me.

Bill (Nick Offerman)

One of the biggest plot changes so far has come to the character of Bill, a survivor who along with his partner Frank survived the pandemic in a town outside of Boston.

In the game, Bill joins Joel and Ellie as they help them on their journey west, as Frank abandoned them some time ago for unknown reasons. It is later revealed that Frank committed suicide after becoming infected.

In the series, Bill is no longer alive when Joel and Ellie arrive at his compound, having committed suicide along with Frank a few months earlier when her husband’s health failed.

Comedic actor Nick Offerman, best known for his role on Parks & Recreation, was cast as Bill in the series and earned rave reviews for his tender and moving performance in episode three, with some fans calling him one of the ” best episodes of television. ever’.

Tess ‘Tessa’ Servopoulos (Anna Torv)

Tessa is Joel’s long-term bootlegging partner in The Last of Us, often seen as the brains to his muscle in their two-person company.

Played in the series by Australian actress Anna Torv, Tessa is shown to be a brave and resourceful woman in both portrayals of the character, who sadly dies while she and Joel try to take Ellie on a date with the Fireflies militant group.

Tessa dies after being infected with Cordyceps, though government forces kill her in-game, rather than heroically blowing herself up to buy Joel and Ellie time to escape a horde of clickers like she does on the show.

In the HBO adaptation, Tessa gets a stomach-turning kiss from one of the infected, which showrunner Mazin called “nightmare fuel.”

Marlene (Merle Dandrige)

As the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene presents herself to viewers and players as an anti-totalitarian freedom fighter who is the person who sets Joel and Ellie on their journey together.

She was portrayed in the game and on the television series by actress Merle Dandridge, who was the only actress involved in the video game to appear on the show.

Dandridge said she was “deeply honored and excited” to receive the call that she would be returning, commenting that her acting had to change since it was a different medium.

She said collider: ‘A lot was built on what I had done because the core knowledge of who this person is remains the same, but the way you work and act and interact with all of that could be adjusted a bit, especially working in front of people looking at those characters through a new lens.’

Tommy Miller (Gabriel Luna)

Tommy Miller is Joel’s younger brother, who before the pandemic worked as a carpenter and was close to him and his niece Sarah.

After the outbreak, Tommy joins the Fireflies, but becomes disillusioned and moves to Wyoming in search of a more useful life, a decision that on the show leads Joel to try and cross-country with Ellie.

He is played by Texan actor Gabriel Luna on the television series, who has had roles in Agents of SHIELD and True Detective, and who stated that playing a role based on the video game was like making a ‘biographical film about a person who exists in life’ .

told the hollywood reporter: ‘I tried to absorb [from the games] what he thought was important and what players expect from a true translation of the game.’