the HBO series has been censored, Neil Druckmann explains

While in France, we still do not know the name of the broadcaster for the series The Last of Us from HBO, on the side of the United States, we are actively preparing the arrival of the adaptation on small screen of one of the the most significant games of the last ten years. The promotional campaign is in full swing, the various speakers are multiplying the interviews and that of Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of the video games, and who officiates as executive producer and even director on the series, mentioned the notable differences between the video game original and the television series adapted from it. At SFX Magazine, we learn that violence has been reduced in the HBO program, at least in terms of its frequency. Don’t panic, however, Druckmann specifies that the series will keep its violence “essential” and necessary to transcribe the harsh reality that the different protagonists live in the show.

We need a certain amount of action, or violence, that we could use for mechanics so you can connect with Joel and get into a state of flux. So you would really feel like you’re connected to that on-screen avatar and you see the world through their eyes. But that doesn’t exist in passive media.

One of the things I loved hearing from Craig Mazin and HBO early on was, ‘Let’s cut out all but the essential violence. It allowed the violence to have even more of an impact than in the game, because when you keep showing the threat and you see people’s reaction to a threat, it makes it scarier. And when we reveal the Infected and the Clickers, you see what has brought Humanity down and why everyone is so scared.

There will therefore be less shattered brains or dismembered bodies in the TV series, but we can still expect both graphic and psychological violence to portray all the brutality in which Joel and Ellie evolve. With 15 million cumulative views on the first official trailer released in early December 2022, The Last of Us series seems set to experience the same success as House of The Dragon. Only a few weeks left for American viewers, The Last of Us will arrive on January 15, 2023 on HBO Max.