With the upcoming release ofThe Last Of Us season 2, it’s interesting to reflect on the long legacy ofThe Last Of Us, not only one of the bestPlayStation exclusives, but one of the most influential video games of all time.
The original Last of Us, made for the PS3 and later re-released and remade for PS4 and PS5, is one of those games that hasstood the test of time.Although it was initially released in 2013, creative director Neil Druckmann had been working on the story for many years before that.
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In a recent SonyCreator To Creator interview, Neil Druckmann sat beside Alex Garland, the writer of 28 Days Later, in whichDruckmann discussed his creative process of the ideation of The Last Of Us, from the initial pitch to George Romero to the success of the title at Naughty Dog.
During the conversation Garland remarks, “let me say this,The Last Of Usis better than28 Days.” It’s surprising to seeThe Last Of Usnot only a massive inspiration for gaming fansbut other creativesin the same field.
Druckmann describes howThe Last Of Us began as a school pitch to George Romero, the influential horror director behind movies like Night Of The Living Dead. Although this story has been told before, it’s especially fascinating now, considering how The Last Of Us film adaptation becameentirely successfulin its own right.
We had a school project where we had to pitch game ideas to George Romero, of Night Of The Living Dead fame… our professor was friends with him, so he came by the studio and I pitched the story of like, here’s this guy that lost his daughter.
Funny enough, Duckmann remarked thatGeorge Romero “hated it " for its supposed lack of character and story.That said, Druckmann still considered this a massive milestone,posting, “RIP George Romero,” when the filmmaker passed away in 2017.
This wasn’t the last time Druckmann pitched a project that eventuallybecame The Last of Us. For instance, he later “worked on it as a comic book. I pitched it to Image Comics at the time. They weren’t interested; they had the Walking Dead.”
Later, this small project, which seemed to fail at every turn, finally got its big break when Druckmann helped produceUncharted 2: Among Thievesfor the famous gaming companyNaughty Dog.
The Last Of Us Starts Development At Naughty Dog
Druckmann had a long history at Naughty Dog before finally directingThe Last Of Us. As he worked at the company, he slowly got promoted to design positions for titles such asJak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier, and the first twoUncharted titles.
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Then,Naughty Dogannounced to the team that since they “just had all this success withUncharted 2, for the first time, we’re gonna do two projects.” In response,Druckmann unveiled his long-running idea for The Last of Us, which quickly caught on within the company.
We’re like, what’s the other project gonna be, is it going to be a Jack And Daxter reboot? I’m like, I have this thing I’ve been working on, what if we try to do this… Before I knew it, I was like, writing and being creative director.
After the project’s long list of failures, Druckmann finally had an entire team behind him at Naughty Dog.Later, the game’s success led to remakes, sequels, and a now upcoming second season of theHBO original seriesof the same name.
Surprisingly, an idea that started as a failed pitch to one of the greatest zombie directors of all time turned into one of the most well-respected zombie media franchises, gaining awards and notoriety across gaming and television.
Overall, it’s such a gripping tale howThe Last Of Uscame to be, and we highly recommend watching thecomplete discussionbetween both creators, which provides much more insight into their process behind creating these massive franchises.
The Last of Us
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