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The Last of Us HBO series has found its first director – Johan Renck, who has prior experience directing episodes of both Breaking Bad and Chernobyl.
In a new interview, Renck also reveals his other role in The Last of Us adaptation, as well as some more juicy tidbits to speculate upon. “I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it,” Renck told Discussing Film. “It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot.”
So, Renck is directing the first episode, that much is clear. Elsewhere, there’s still a lot to chew over. Namely, the fact The Last of Us HBO series is described as an “ongoing” TV series, perhaps suggesting that it won’t be a one-and-done miniseries a la Chernobyl (of which Renck directed all five episodes) and may in fact involve multiple seasons.
As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter in early March, the HBO series will “cover the events of the original game… with the possibility of additional content based on the forthcoming game sequel [The Last of Us 2].”
Interestingly, Renck, who directed Breaking Bad episodes “Mas”, “Hermanos”, and “Breakage”, has previously spoken about directing for TV again in the past – one which could also hint at the HBO series’ format.
“There are two kinds of TV projects that I still agree to do,” he explained to Café magazine in 2017 “One is television series where each episode is a separate "entity", like Black Mirror, and the other is miniseries where you can do all the episodes.”
In this instance, a pilot – one that can be shot months before full production begins on a series – could mark itself out as being a “separate entity.”
It definitely sounds like Renck won’t be helming every single episode, though having someone of his calibre calling the shots from the beginning, alongside Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, is a promising start. Let’s just hope we can follow the Fireflies to television sooner rather than later.
