While we wait for updates on The Last of Us 2, let’s check in with the movie — which isn’t faring much better.
The downside to experiencing a truly spectacular piece of media — whether it’s a book, a movie, an album, a TV show or a video game — is that you just want more.
When The Last of Us hit the PS3 in 2013, many gamers experienced that very feeling. Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic zombie game wasn’t only gorgeously illustrated, with just the right amount of thrill and horror, but the main story of Joel and Ellie was so compelling that fans immediately began to wonder if there would ever be a movie version.
In The Last of Us we follow Joel, an ageing smuggler who is forced to reckon with his own morality when he meets the teenage girl Ellie, and is tasked with leading her through the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The story was devised by Neil Druckmann, who has been quite open about his desire to take the story to the big screen — and last year, we were delighted by the news that Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams was attached to play Ellie.
However, in an interview with IGN, Druckmann confirms the sad news: “There hasn’t been any work done on it in over a year and a half.”
Despite the fact that the team had a table read a while back, “it kind of entered development hell like these things tend to do.”
This doesn’t mean a The Last of Us movie will never happen, but unfortunately, Maisie Williams as Ellie is becoming more and more unlikely.
Maisie Williams said in late 2014 that she was basically down for the role, but that she was also aware of the growing age difference between Ellie (who is 14) and herself (Williams turns 19 this month).
“They want me to do it, and I want to do it,” she said at the time. “But there’s no script, no director, and no anything else. [And] if they make it in 30 years, they can’t have a 40-year-old Ellie.”
The Last of Us movie is in development at Sony. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more. Meanwhile, we’ll just have to keep hoping for a sequel to the game.
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