Our last timeline change explained
Earlier Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckman revealed that some episodes of HBO’s upcoming adaptation of The Last of US will “deviate significantly” from their original source material. But anyway, curiously the timeline of Ellie and Joel’s on-screen adventures has also been tweaked.
In order of play, Cordyceps epidemic erupted in 2013, and the main events of The Last of Us take place twenty years later. However, in the HBO series, which began in 2003, most of the show’s story is set in 2003, as initially revealed by promotional material for The Last of Us.
Cause of change
Why the sudden change, one may ask? Well, while the decision to set The Last of Us in 2003 was made to “help make the story more real,” according to Druckman, showrunner Craig Mazin thinks TV shows can really benefit from taking place in familiar timelines.
And speaking to TechRadar as part of a roundtable interview ahead of the show’s HBO Max debut on January 15, Mazin explained: “[The decision to shift the timeline] I spoke to Neil very quickly. This is a subtle difference. But I have this The thing about jumping into the future. I feel like, if I’m watching a show and the year is 2023, and the show is in 2043, it’s a little less real. Even if I’m watching a show in 2023 and it takes place in 2016, it’s a little less real. So I thought it might be interesting to say, ‘Hey, look, in this parallel universe, this is happening right now. It’s happening this year.’
Mazin also clarified that the decision to bring the show’s timeline forward had some impact on the nature-beaten aesthetic of The Last of Us’ post-apocalyptic setting. “Practically speaking, [the decision] Not much has changed except to give us a slightly different palette of prompts and set design and vehicle choices,” explains the creator of Chernobyl. “But the funny thing is, as we go through the series and find new places and new relics of the old world, we keep coming back to that 2003 vibe. So it’s really about helping people connect a little bit more and nothing more.”
Druckmann was happy with the choice of set
For his part, Druckmann was happy with the magazine’s choice to set our ending in the present day, His partner said in response to the piggybacking “If it helps make it [the show] More realistic, then it’s a worthwhile change.”
“It was one of those things that didn’t have a clear answer,” Druckmann said. “We’ve already come a long way from 2013, so I felt [the show] Some kind of change was needed, and I could tell how strongly Craig felt about making much of today’s show. It was one of those changes that didn’t feel like we were fundamentally changing [The Last of Us] About, so I bought it.”