Craig Mazin Says HBO ‘The Last Of Us’ Is His Video Game Adaptation “Swansong”, Sees Nowhere To Go After “The Greatest Story Ever Told In The Medium”
Though the series’ mainstream success has likely earned him calls from many a studio desperate to franchise out their respective IPs, HBO’s The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin has confirmed that he intends for his work on “the greatest story ever told in the medium” to be his one and video game-to-screen adaptation.
Mazin, who shares both his series co-creator credits and co-showrunner duties with Naughty Dog studio boss Neil Druckmann, spoke to his career plans during a recent, post-Season 2 finale interview given to Rachel Harper, the resident Editor of the UK-based science-fiction-centric news outlet SciFiNow.
In opening their time together, Harper asked her guest, “Video game adaptations have had varying results What do you think makes this particular video game adaptation resonate with audiences so well?”, to which he asserted, “Well, first, start by adapting The Last of Us. That makes it quite a bit easier. It’s still the greatest story ever told in the medium.”
“But also, I’m a fan,” Mazin continued. “I’m a geek, I’m a nerd. I play D&D three times a week, and I’ve been playing video games my whole life. So when I came to this adaptation, I didn’t come as somebody who understood there was a built in audience, or it was a franchise or IP or any other horrible words. I came to it because I loved it and because I really wanted people who would never play to experience it. I also wanted the people who had played to re-experience it through this new medium, which lets us do quite a bit more at times.”
“So come at it with love and honesty and purity,” he added. “The good news is that we are seeing this more and more. There are more and more video game adaptations that are successful. Minecraft is enormous right now, and Fallout was such a delight. I love that game. I love the show. I’m hoping that we’ll see more and more as time goes on, and I don’t see why we wouldn’t. I think that Hollywood is waking up to the idea that video games are both an incredible source of material, but also worth adapting with respect.”
The conversation turned to the topic of ‘other games’, Harper then inquired of Mazin, “If you could adapt any other video game, what would you pick?”
In turn, the Chernobyl creator admitted, “Well, I’m not ever going to, of course, because where can you go from here? But oh, man, I’m tempted to say Grand Theft Auto IV because I’m a masochist and I just think that would be like 19 seasons of TV! Haha. But then also part of me thinks, ‘oh, no, don’t do that. Do something else. That’s almost no story at all. Go ahead and try and do Candy Crush…!’”
“Mostly, I’m excited to watch what other people do, even if I help. I have no problem being a helper,” he concluded. “I would love to help produce some good adaptations of video games, just a couple in mind that I actually have. But in terms of writing and dedicating myself on a day-by-day basis… this one’s my video game swansong.”
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