HBO’s The Last of adaptation has found its Joel and Ellie: Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Are you screaming yet? I’m screaming. Internally AND externally, so apologies to my colleagues.
It’s a deadset Game of Thrones reunion. Pedro played hot bisexual prince Oberyn Martell, while Bella played scene-stealing little Lady Lyanna Mormont. Of course, they were never actually in a scene together. Still. Reunion.
The Last Of Us is essentially a zombie first player game, set in the former United States some 20 years after an outbreak of the Cordyceps fungus destroyed the country. I played the first game in lockdown, and the first 20 minutes or so where a ‘virus’ causes ‘chaos’ and an ‘end to civilisation as we know it’? Triggering as fuuuuck.
That being said, calling The Last Of US ‘just’ a zombie film is underselling it by a million miles. It’s about survival, family, grief, and the depths of human selfishness, and will break your heart about a thousand times.
Joel is the hardened survivor and borderline criminal, who is tasked with smuggling the orphaned Ellie out of a heavily quarantined zone where Boston used to be. (I say ‘borderline’, because Joel’s past is ~mysteriously~ never fully explained in the first game*, but his body count is so high by the end of the game he might as well be Wanted Man #1.)
By the end… well, I won’t spoil the end, because it’s a beautiful tale to watch play out (and literally play out). When I finished, I just sat there letting the end credits roll, processing the emotions this game had just put me through. I would die for Ellie and Joel.
The highly, highly anticipated series is being helmed by Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin, who is penning the script and co-producing., alongside Neil Druckmann.
So when can we expect the series to drop? No idea. A date hasn’t been set, and coronavirus continues to slow down every single production. But it’s starting to smell like it *might* be our new cultural behemoth – the show that inspires podcasts and recaps and a thousand Reddit sleuths. And if so, gimme.
*Nobody spoil The Last Of Us Part II for me because I’m only 30% of the way through. If you do I will HUNT YOU DOWN, I swear to god.
