Summary
- Adapting The Last of Us Part II for television will require major changes and reconfigurations, given its expansive world and nonlinear narrative.
- The TV series will need to make Abby more sympathetic from the beginning, as the audience won't have the benefit of playing as her like in the game.
- Joel's death will be even more heartbreaking on screen, with the vulnerability of the actors amplifying the emotions of the scene.
Major changes may have to be made to The Last of Us Part II in the process of adapting the game for The Last of Us season 2. The Last of Us Part II is a much bigger game than its predecessor, with a bigger cast and a much more expansive world. Translating that sprawling nonlinear narrative to television will be an immense challenge, and creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin might have to reconfigure the structure and narrow down the scope to make it happen.
The Last of Us season 1 remained relatively faithful to the first game’s story, but it still made plenty of tweaks along the way. Bill and Frank received much larger roles in the HBO series and new characters like Kathleen were introduced because the TV format gave the show the freedom to cut away from Joel and Ellie to focus on other people. The freedom of cross-cutting is sure to serve the series well as it chops up the gargantuan narrative of The Last of Us Part II into hour-long episodes of television. They might need to alter plot points, scale back the action, and reimagine a certain controversial character.
10 Making Abby More Sympathetic From The Beginning
When Abby is introduced in the game, her brutal murder of Joel immediately turns the audience against her. But she eventually grows on the player as they’re forced to play as Abby and see her side of things. The gameplay actively endears the player to Abby throughout the messy revenge storyline, meaning that the player won't necessarily root for Ellie when the two come to blows. Since the TV show won’t have the benefit of putting the audience in Abby’s shoes like the game did, The Last of Us season 2 will have to make Abby more sympathetic from the beginning.
9 Joel Will Play A Different Song For Ellie
In The Last of Us Part II, Joel keeps his promise to teach Ellie how to play the guitar. The first song he plays for her is Pearl Jam’s “Future Days” from their 2013 album Lightning Bolt. But that song choice will have to change when this beautiful scene is adapted for the TV series, considering that the outbreak happened in 2003 in the show's cannon. Joel could play an earlier Pearl Jam track from before 2003, or a song by another artist entirely.
8 Joel's Death Will Be Even More Heartbreaking
The most heartbreaking moment in The Last of Us Part II is its brutal inciting incident: Joel’s agonizingly elongated death at the hands of Abby. Pedro Pascal’s Joel from the TV show is a lot more vulnerable and less hard-edged than his video game counterpart, which could make his death even sadder. The CG scene in the game is already devastating, but seeing the emotions on the real human faces of Pascal and Bella Ramsey will probably amplify that devastation to a new level.
7 Giving The Crooked WLF & Seraphite Leadership More Focus
Since the player plays as characters who are on the run from the WLF and the Seraphites, those groups only ever appear to ambush the heroes. But the TV series can give the corrupt leadership of these groups some scenes of their own to better establish their motivations and power dynamics. Season 1 did something similar with the introduction of The Last of Us' Kathleen, the leader of the group chasing Sam and Henry, who was never seen in the game. Just like in season 1, this will be a great excuse to bring in A-list guest stars like Melanie Lynskey.
6 Smaller Hordes Of Infected
After the infected were disappointingly scarce in The Last of Us season 1, season 2 promises to feature the infected more prominently. But the game has scenes with massive, uncontrollable hordes of infected that aren’t practical to recreate in live-action. The CGI would be too expensive, and doing it for real would require too many extras. The hordes seen when Joel and Tommy save Abby or when Ellie and Dina flee from the subway will probably be a lot smaller when those scenes play out in the second season of the TV series.
5 Stretching Joel & Ellie's Flashbacks To Full Episode Length
Throughout the gritty revenge narrative of The Last of Us Part II, the game occasionally takes a break for a flashback from the past four years of Joel and Ellie’s lives. Some of these flashbacks, like Ellie’s birthday trip to the aerospace museum and the duo’s unexpectedly deadly search for new guitar strings, can be stretched to full episode length in season 2. The standalone flashback episodes in episode 3, “Long, Long Time,” and episode 7, “Left Behind”, were two of the most acclaimed installments, hence why season 2 is likely to continue this format.
4 Seeing More Of Tommy's Vengeful Rampage
Before Ellie looks to get revenge against Abby, Tommy sets out to do the same thing, which is why he's a few steps ahead of her the whole way until they reunite at the aquarium. Since the player plays as Ellie for most of the story, the game follows the aftermath of Tommy’s road to revenge as Ellie follows in his footsteps. Every time Ellie arrives at a key location, she sees the mess left behind by Tommy’s roaring, off-screen rampage. Thanks to the magic of editing, the TV show can actually show Tommy’s vengeful crusade across Seattle and use it as a B-plot.
3 Making Nora's Torture Scene More Graphic
One of the most important (and shocking) plot points in The Last of Us Part II is when Ellie brutally tortures Abby’s friend Nora for her location. This is the point of no return for Ellie, as it leaves her horribly traumatized and even more narrowly focused on tracking down Abby. The game leaves this traumatic event off-screen, but since HBO is notorious for its uncompromising portrayal of violence, The Last of Us season 2 will probably show the torture in all its stomach-churning glory.
2 Cutting Between Ellie & Abby During The Three Days In Seattle
The game chronicles three days in Seattle entirely from Ellie’s perspective, then when she encounters Abby at the theater, the game jumps back and covers the same three days entirely from Abby’s perspective. This disjointed structure worked well with the immersive experience of gameplay, but the TV series is unlikely to let Ellie out of the spotlight for a few Abby-centric episodes. The series will probably use its cross-cutting capabilities to switch between the two throughout the three days. Charting Ellie and Abby’s journeys simultaneously could be a great way to highlight the similarities between the two characters and their struggles.
1 Scaled Back WLF & Seraphite Battle Scenes
When Abby and Yara go to the Seraphites’ island in an attempt to rescue Lev, they get swept up in a large-scale battle between the ambushing WLF troops and the defending Seraphites. Entire villages are burnt to the ground as hundreds of Wolves swarm in to fight legions of Scars. A TV budget – even the inflated Last of Us TV budget – may not be enough to accommodate the scope and scale of these battle scenes, forcing the series to scale them back a bit when the time comes.