The Last of Us director says the HBO series "won't run into the same issue as Game of Thrones"

The Last of Us director Neil Druckmann says the upcoming HBO series' story won't go beyond the popular video games.

Talking to the Hollywood Reporter, Druckmann expressed confidence that The Last of Us HBO show won't make the same mistakes as Game of Thrones, whose last few seasons diverged from George R.R. Martin's unfinished source material to a high degree of controversy. While still overall a very popular TV show, it's generally agreed that the quality of the high fantasy series' storytelling began a progressive decline starting in season 5, when the biggest changes were made adapting the books for TV.

Druckmann, for his part, doesn't think The Last of Us series is at risk of falling into that same trap because "we have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games."

"We won't run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn't end on a cliffhanger."

This isn't the first we've heard Druckmann tout the faithfulness of The Last of Us TV series with regards to Naughty Dog's games. Just recently, he called the TV adaptation "the best, most authentic game adaptation," adding that, "Sometimes adaptations haven't worked because the source material is not strong enough. Sometimes they haven't worked because the people making it don't understand the source material."

All that said, we recently learned that the series will tone down the violence from the games, keeping only what Druckmann and series co-creator Craig Mazin deem "very essential."

The nine-episode first season of The Last of Us TV show will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on January 15.

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