Neil Druckmann on adding backstory to game characters

Neil Druckmann, creator of “The Last of Us” and head of the successful game studio Naughty Dog, knows well the checkered history of adapting video game content into other media.

He's seen it done poorly by filmmakers who don't understand the game and therefore distort its essence when translating it to television or film. At the same time, content creators who try to stick too closely to every detail of the game's plot will struggle to create something that works as a TV show. Basically, the two are different things, emphasized Druckmann in an interview with diversity for the latest episode of the Strictly Business podcast.

Another mistake adaptations make, according to Druckmann, is “sticking so close to the source material, which was created, designed and written for this different medium with strengths and weaknesses, and trying to translate it as it is “, without making any changes to this other medium.” has different strengths and weaknesses.”

HBO is currently producing the second season of The Last of Us, scheduled to debut in 2025, while PlayStation is preparing to release an “expanded” version of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II Remastered source material for the second season of the TV series for the high-end graphics-focused PlayStation 5 Pro gaming console, which will be released in November. As the head of both projects, Druckmann announced how the plot of the second game will be expanded in Season 2 of “The Last of Us”.

“What I really enjoy now is that sometimes there are people who watched the show and then went and played the game and talked about what a cool experience,” Druckmann said. “The game sometimes hints at things that we just can't address, to show that the game can, and vice versa.” When you experience both, both are richer for it. And I love hearing that experience from people. For example, they tell me, “I watch the show and then play the game, and I really like how different the Bill sequence is, and that gave me this different insight into him.” And there are things in that Season I'm really excited about – things that we've hinted at – one scene in particular comes to mind that I think fans of the game will eat up because it really gives you a lot of backstory for this important character We don’t even have a way to implement that in the game.”

Druckmann was under no pressure to bring the popular PlayStation game to television. The path that led him to bring “Last of Us” to HBO was through “Chernobyl.” Druckmann was so moved by the power of HBO's 2019 miniseries about the 1986 Soviet Union nuclear disaster that he met for lunch with Craig Mazin, the show's top writer and producer. The two got along so well that he was finally ready to think about a TV rendition of Joel and Ellie's story, says Druckmann.

“I just wanted to meet the guy and just gush about how much I love ('Chernobyl') and hear his thoughts on how he put it together, how he wrote it and how long he worked on it,” said Druckmann during an interview on September 18 as part of Variety Presents: Gaming at the TikTok Leadership Summit. “And when I was at this lunch with this guy – and he wanted to meet me too – he started talking about 'The Last of Us' in such an intimate, fundamental way that he understood , which is what made me think, “Oh my God, this guy is in love with this game we made.”

In a detailed interview with Cynthia Littleton diversity's co-editor-in-chief and Jennifer Maas, diversityDruckmann, a senior business reporter covering TV and video games, details how the game development team at Naughty Dog, the PlayStation-owned studio behind the “Uncharted” series of games, coordinates with Mazin and his team.

“Our approach is that we start at the beginning of the season, pause the season and watch the game. Our goal is to tell the best story possible,” said Druckmann. “And then our process is to just look at the content that we have in the game and say, 'OK, what are the things that we both overwhelmingly love that we think could be adapted that way 'What are they like?' And we just put little checkmarks next to these index cards to say, 'OK, these things could just stay the way they are,' and that becomes building blocks.”

Druckmann cited the acclaimed first season episode of “Last of Us” titled “Long, Long Time” as an example of a clear difference in the game's plot from the series. Druckmann and Mazin agreed that video game characters Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) needed a stronger emotional foundation for the episode to work, as it represented a major departure from the overarching plot of Pedro Pascal's Joel fights She Wants take teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) through decimated cities to a medical facility where she may hold the key to a cure for the disease that has plagued the planet for 20 years.

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“There are several reasons why we did this. In the game, you get to know Bill through action because the game really relies on interactivity and action,” said Druckmann. “And if we translated that sequence from Bill, maybe it would be okay, maybe even good. That wouldn't be great, because with so much action on the screen, if you don't interact with it you don't get the kind of excitement or immersion you would get in the game. Instead, you just get a spectacle, and that spectacle would eventually wear off. So we knew a big change was needed.”

Mazin adapted the story. “If you come into the game, Frank will no longer be alive. So we have only hinted at the relationship between these two men. And here we said instead: Let’s focus on this relationship,” said Druckmann.

It's important to “identify areas that just don't work because they're designed for this interactive medium, and then start brainstorming.” How do we expand this world? How will we build this world? Sometimes the best surprises for players are when they see a backstory or say, oh, that was mentioned in the game, and now they get to see a full episode on that thing again, like Bill and Frank. It makes the game richer. For me, that’s the best way to adapt,” he said.

“Strictly Business” is diversityis the weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. (Please click here to subscribe to our free newsletter.) New episodes appear every Wednesday and are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Google Play, SoundCloud and more.