So many video game adaptations since the late ‘80s seemed to look at the back of the game box and shrug, as if Hollywood producers were only buying the title. The game worlds of Super Mario and Resident Evil didn’t invite reverent attempts at recreation, but rather creative liberties, and fair enough, those game worlds were difficult, even absurd.

Within the last 10 years, video games have been maturing, trading the abstract imagery of lower-powered machines for performance capture and award-winning writing. What changed? 10 years ago, The Last of Us was released, a critical darling profound even for its acclaimed developer Naughty Dog. Adapted to an HBO series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, there is no out-there source material to batter into shape or discard in favor of something completely different. It was almost like a self-fulfilling prophecy, as The Last of Us was sometimes accused of trying to be a movie. Whether that’s a fair criticism, it’s certainly paying off now.

RELATED: 'The Last of Us' Movie by Sam Raimi That Never Happened

‘The Last of Us’ Was a New Beginning for Video Games

the-last-of-us-troy-baker-ashley-johnson-social
Image via Naughty Dog

Part of what made The Last of Us so revolutionary was, to the frustration of some, how cinematic it felt. “Film language” in video games had been evolving steadily, and one could even mark its progress within franchises. For example, in 2007’s Mass Effect, the interactive dialogue scenes would cut between shot and reverse shot with a basic framing. In 2010’s Mass Effect 2, the camera began to pan and hover to sometimes mixed results. The 2012 camera in Mass Effect 3 offered no further development, suggesting a ceiling. By contrast, The Last of Us built on the naturalistic performances of Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series, with smart blocking and confident camera work – however virtual. The chief difference, then, between Uncharted and The Last of Us was tone.

Mass Effect is actually a good case study here, because the game was its own revolutionary step for storytelling and presentation. While the writing was great, with a massive universe and charming characters (everybody loves Garrus), it could also feel like a cross between Star Trek and an action movie. It was space opera, and it was, you know, Canadian. Commander Shepard would say things like “I’m here to shut down the Collectors,” and that’s fine; it was functional. The Last of Us brought video game dialogue down to Earth, so to speak. It wasn’t just emulating how movies sound, it was raw and emotional. The scene where Joel and Ellie argue in an abandoned house – often teased in the show's marketing with the “You have no idea what loss is” line – felt like a thesis statement. It was powerful.

‘The Last of Us’ Always Had a Hollywood Dream

the last of us part i trailer
Image via Naughty Dog

Despite being about zombies, The Last of Us also represented a break from what had become a stereotypical game genre without anyone realizing it. Well, critics and gamers often cited the ubiquity of the “space marine,” whether represented by Mass Effect or Halo or Gears of War or Warhammer 40,000, and the list goes on like that. Terrestrial Marines were the mainstay of Call of Duty, which was the Michael Bay answer to Medal of Honor, itself an attempt at the prestige of Saving Private Ryan. Video games in the 2000s were getting louder and dumber, increasingly synonymous with Mountain Dew. While The Last of Us prioritized more immediate themes and dialogue, it also toned down the spectacle. Adapting prior games to film would’ve busted the budget, as each Call of Duty saw a new foreign power invade the U.S. Even the Uncharted games were massive spectacles, with trucks flipping over and planes crashing all around Nathan Drake.

The world of The Last of Us ventured little past what had already been done in films like Children of Men and especially I Am Legend. The post-apocalypse was beautifully overgrown, with decay in the concrete and zoo animals running around. Joel and Ellie fought zombies with hunting rifles and knives and, curiously, scissors and tape. The outfits they wore weren’t “costumes.” Even the creature design was minimal, with a core aesthetic built around the mutant properties of the cordyceps fungus, and only two enemy types beyond “regular zombie.” This was not Left 4 Dead, with its Hunters, Smokers, Boomers, and Tanks. It wasn’t until The Last of Us Part II that the player encountered a proper bestiary, including a terrifying body horror dubbed the “Rat King.” Hopefully, future seasons of the Last of Us show will be endowed enough to convincingly render it. First, the fundamentals need to be laid down, as additionally preempted by the original game.

In the mix with veteran voice actors like Troy Baker (Joel) and Nolan North (David) were TV staples like Annie Wersching (24) and W. Earl Brown (Deadwood), neither of whom had done a game before. Presumably, the intention was to hire the best actor for the role, but should Hollywood come calling, the film cast is already assembled. These actors could easily reprise their roles, as Merle Dandridge now has for the HBO show. Reaching out to Hollywood stars may have been proactive, and those circles eventually overlapped for The Last of Us Part II, where Neil Druckmann wrote the script with Westworld scribe Halley Gross. It may be speculation – even hearsay – but this is Naughty Dog, who lived up to their name with one key character decision. While Ellie was played by Ashley Johnson, the character was widely considered to be modeled on the actor Elliot Page. It’s the kind of hopeful fan casting that sometimes leads to Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury, and sometimes isn’t appreciated, as Page himself noted on a Reddit AMA.

Is ‘The Last of Us’ Abandoning Gamers?

Joel and Ellie hiding in the dark in the HBO series 'The Last of Us'

Fans and even developers of games like Half-Life 2 and Bioshock Infinite would often talk about how games shouldn’t be movies, which is why cutscenes (non-interactive video interludes) should be minimized or excised altogether. If anything, Metal Gear Solid is the exception that proves the rule. This prevailing wisdom was more like theory, and certainly, spinning around as Gordon Freeman while characters exchanged dialogue was always sillier than the surprisingly well-directed cutscenes of early Halo games, but it was put to a true test with The Last of Us. Surely, the anti-cutscene contingent can recognize that The Last of Us brought an unheralded level of polish to voice performance and character animation, while also maintaining that it didn’t truly push the medium forward. And lo, the game that wanted to be a movie is now a TV show, but the blueprint for that easy translation did push the medium forward. Thanks to The Last of Us, there’s a higher standard for direction and a sense that “mature storytelling” requires subtlety. Perhaps the modern convergence of games, movies, and television is creating new possibilities.

The Last of Us premieres January 15 on HBO and HBO Max.