Sony Pictures and HBO officially partnered to co-produce an original series based on The Last of Us franchise. The adaptation is understood to encompass both the PS3 original and the recently released The Last of Us: Part II. We have been hearing rumblings about this project for over a year by now, but this confirmation is as official as it gets; namely, HBO placed a direct-to-series order for a full season’s worth of material.
Series creator Neil Druckmann is on board to co-author the script. The lead on this adapted screenplay, however, will be Craig Mazin, best known for his work on the award-winning historical drama series Chernobyl which debuted exclusively on HBO last year to near-universal acclaim. Sony Pictures Television and HBO have also contracted both Word Games (which was part of the Chernobyl production crew) and TLOU creators at Naughty Dog Studios in order to help with the production.
Next up will be the first official casting calls but before those run their course, we won’t be hearing about any specific launch windows or other production milestones. Still, based on historical precedent and previous reports, it is reasonable to expect TLOU HBO series to debut as early as mid-2022.