Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: The Last of Us

  • Nico Parker Joins HBO’s ‘THE LAST OF US’ As Joel’s Daughter Sarah

    Nico Parker Joins HBO’s ‘THE LAST OF US’ As Joel’s Daughter Sarah

    Get ready to feel emotions, as HBO’s The Last of Us has found it’s Sarah Miller. Nico Parker, who is best known for her starring role in 2019’s live-action Dumbo remake and for being the child of acclaimed actress Thandiwe Newton, has joined the cast of the upcoming video game adaptation as the daughter of Pedro Pascal‘s Joel Miller. Fans of the franchise know that Sarah plays a key role in the events of the post-apocalyptic saga, and the talented Parker seems prepared to bring that role to life. She will star alongside the aforementioned Pascal, as well as Game of Thrones breakout Bella Ramsey and former Ghost Rider, Gabriel Luna. Also part of the cast is Merle Dandridge, who will reprise her role as the leader of a rebel organization called the Fireflies from the original game.

    The Last of Us tells the story of Joel and Ellie, who must traverse the country together after a dangerous fungal infection turns half the world into mindless, bloodthirsty creatures. They encounter numerous threats, but the most deadly may be the humans they meet along the way. The series will be adapted to the screen by franchise creator Neil Druckmann and former Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin. The pilot will be directed by the capable Kantemir Balagov, with Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbas also set to helm episodes. While the show is expected to stay true to the heart of the original story, Druckmann has stated in the past that certain events will play out differently in live-action. While we still don’t know what he means by this, the revelation should make fans at least a little nervous about the fate of their favorite characters.

    Source: Deadline, IGN

  • ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Eyeing Late 2021 Production Start

    ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 3 Eyeing Late 2021 Production Start

    We’ve all been wondering when the third season of The Mandalorian would finally enter production. It was revealed earlier in the year that the spin-off The Book of Boba Fett would be the first to enter production and premiere in its usual time slot this year. Star Wars‘ expansion into streaming has already seen them pick up the pace with the Rogue One spin-off Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi entering production throughout the year. Well, it looks like the expansion has also come at a price.

    Collider revealed that the third season won’t enter production until the end of 2021 or the latest in early 2022. So, we certainly can’t expect the continuation before the end of the next year. There are multiple reasons for this, as the LA stages the film usually utilizes are pre-occupied by Ewan McGregor‘s return as Obi-Wan Kenobi. There is also the fact that Pedro Pascal recently joined HBO’s live-action adaptation of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us franchise.

    It’s going to be a long wait for Mandalorian fans until the next entry finally releases, but it doesn’t mean we aren’t getting more Star Wars on Disney+. Collider also hinted at the fact that we can expect some familiar faces in the spin-off, as it is described as a mid-season event. So far, the only confirmed addition besides Temuera Morrison‘s Boba Fett is Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand. The series recently ended its production. So, we might get some more news in the coming months about what we can expect from the series.

    Source: Collider

  • Merle Dandridge to Reprises ‘The Last of Us’ Role in Upcoming HBO Series

    Merle Dandridge to Reprises ‘The Last of Us’ Role in Upcoming HBO Series

    HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation has found its Marlene in Merle Dandridge. A prominent character in the first installment of the game back in 2013, Marlene is the leader of the Fireflies, a revolutionary militia group developed after a fungus outbreak that swept the planet. Initially thought of to be one of the good guys, who would help both Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) develop a cure for the disease, she turns into the final antagonist of the first game.

    After several casting choices that seem to deviate from the profiles that the characters in the game series brought us, bringing Dandrige on board feels interesting. It would seem that even with all the changes to the source material such an adaptation usually entails, Marlene is someone that the production team, which was also heavily involved in developing the game series, feels should be brought to life on the small screen with little to no differences to its video game counterpart.

     

     

    HBO’s The Last of Us doesn’t yet have a release date but with several key casting choices already made, we should maybe get updates on the production’s timeline in the coming weeks. It’ll be interesting to see how much the adaptation changes from the original games, as they might take some unique directions with the franchise. There is also the question of how much of the story will take place within the series’ run time, as they may split up the original game through multiple seasons. They could even explore the time between the 2014 game and its sequel to flesh out the characters. Hopefully, we’ll find out more in the coming weeks.

    Source: THR

  • HBO’s ‘THE LAST OF US’ Adds Directors Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi

    HBO’s ‘THE LAST OF US’ Adds Directors Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi

    The upcoming HBO series The Last of Us has found its directors in Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi. Žbanić’s latest feature was nominated for Oscar for best international film feature while Abbasi won the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard Award for directing in 2018 with his movie Border. Bringing in international talent to lead such a big relevant series is indeed interesting, as the show continues to take a very different route from the gaming franchise. By choosing Bosnian and Iranian directors, one might be driven to think that the atrocities both those countries had to endure sometimes throughout their history might give us some incredible and relevant insight into the world The Last of Us is trying to bring to the small screen.

     

     

    It is based on a game where humanity was decimated due to a mutated strain of a highly contagious fungus, the main characters Joel and Ellie (played by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) try to make their way across the United States of America trying to find a cure that might bring society back from the ashes. Through it all, they will come face to face with the worst that humanity has to offer, as their initially tense relationship grows into a bond that will forever unite them. The series was announced as being in development at HBO last March, getting a series order about six months ago. It is still undisclosed when it will premiere.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Agents of SHIELD’s Gabriel Luna Joins HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

    ‘Agents of SHIELD’s Gabriel Luna Joins HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’

    The fungal apocalypse just added a new survivor. It’s being reported that Gabriel Luna has officially joined the cast of HBO’s The Last of Us, in a role many fans know to be a key part of the franchise’s story. The actor is set to play Tommy Miller, the younger brother of Pedro Pascal‘s Joel Miller and a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world. Tommy appears in both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II, where he is shown to be the leader of a community in Jackson County, Wyoming, alongside his wife Maria.

    He joins a cast that, so far, only includes the aforementioned Pascal and the up-and-coming Bella Ramsey, best known for her work on Game of Thrones. That duo will portray Joel and Ellie, the iconic protagonists of the series, as they journey across the United States two decades after a viral fungus caused society’s collapse. The live-action adaptation will be produced by Neil Druckmann, director and writer of both Naughty Dog video games, and Craig Mazin, who brought the story of Chernobyl to life for HBO in 2019.

    While Luna may be a new face for some, the thespian is no stranger to fans of Marvel Comics. He rose to prominence playing Robbie Reyes during the fourth season of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., becoming only the second actor to bring Ghost Rider to life in live-action. Luna was at one point set to reprise the role in a solo series, but that project never saw the light of day. He went on to receive a starring role in 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate and appear in other hit shows such as True Detective.

    Source: Deadline

  • New ‘Uncharted’ Game and ‘The Last Of Us’ Remake In Development as Sony Faces Internal Strife

    New ‘Uncharted’ Game and ‘The Last Of Us’ Remake In Development as Sony Faces Internal Strife

    Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier took a closer look at Sony’s recent issues adapting to the market and their strong focus on Blockbuster-level games. It looks like an internal shift at the company led to the company’s Sony’s Visual Arts Service Group to take a more active hand in game development. It ended up leading to some unrest with the various departments of the massive cooperation.

    There are also some game-related reveals in this report. It seems Sony is working on a PlayStation 5 remake of 2013’s The Last of Us for their next-gen console. It looks like a secretive team was working on it before it got passed back to the franchise creator, Naughty Dog. The problem was that this team was never fully supported and led Michael Mumbauer, the founder of Visual Arts Service Group, to leave the company after founding this small team. This revelation also confirms that Sony’s conservative approach to its game development may hurt them in the long term. It seems at one point they wanted to remake the first Uncharted but realized that the modern game would’ve been easier to produce, but if their work would’ve been successful, they would return to their initial pitch.

     

    Bericht: Naughty Dog arbeitet an Remake von The Last of Us - und ein Days Gone 2 wird nicht kommen • Eurogamer.de

     

    Their strong focus on only allowing successful or proven studios to take the reigns on massive projects has led to some internal strife. Santa Monica, Naughty Dog, and Guerrilla Games have become their go-to choices. Their niche teams and studios have seen a high turnover, such as the Japanese office seeing massive departures. The teams behind Gravity Rush and Everybody’s Golf are no more, as the studio moves away from niche projects that aren’t 100% proven profitability worldwide. This development proves a point made by Iron Galaxy Studios founder Dave Lang.

    The people funding the work are often risk-averse, and if they have to pick between a team that’s done it before, and someone trying to do it on their own for the first time, I can see why some people pick the prior developer over the latter.

    The Sony Bend division has also seen the results of this new direction. Their pitch for a Days Gone sequel was canceled due to the initial game’s decent sales and mixed reviews. Now the studio is split to help Naughty Dog with a multiplayer game, which many still believe to be part of the initial The Last of Us 2 release. The other half of their team is working on a new Uncharted game. Naughty Dog will supervise the project. Yet, it is uncertain at what stage this project is at the moment. Sadly, the small team led by Mumbauer has pretty much disbanded, and these decisions are opening up a lot of questions about Sony’s future approach in the gaming market.

    Source: Bloomberg

  • ‘The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal Joins HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’

    ‘The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal Joins HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’

    Just a few hours after we covered the rumor that HBO’s upcoming adaptation of The Last Of Us has offered Maharshala Ali the role of Joel, Variety reports that they have officially cast Pedro Pascal in the iconic role. The news follows directly after the announcement that Game of Thrones veteran Bella Ramsey has joined the series. She will be playing the role of Ellie in the HBO adaptation. This announcement is another win for the actor, who has seen a massive surge in popularity over the last few years. His starring role in Disney+’s The Mandalorian already dives into a story of a lone wolf having to take along an unlikely companion, so he has some experience in that kind of role.

    As pointed out in the Ali story, the production seems to be picking up speed with Russian director Kantemir Balagov set to direct the show’s pilot. Naughty Dog’s in-house writing team is also heavily involved alongside the original game’s director Neill Druckman, who took to Twitter after the announcement.

    https://twitter.com/Neil_Druckmann/status/1359710048302206976

    At this rate, we might see more casting news of other iconic characters, such as Joel’s brother Tommy, the firefly leader Marlene, his smuggling partner Tess and survivor Bill. It looks like the series will follow the original game’s story rather closely but could still add its twists and turns to make it stand out from the 2013 original. No matter which direction they decide to go, the casting is perfect for the roles, and here’s hoping we get an official look at them in costume once production starts.

    Source: Variety, Twitter

  • HBO’s ‘THE LAST OF US’ finds its Ellie in ‘GAME OF THRONES’’ Bella Ramsey

    HBO’s ‘THE LAST OF US’ finds its Ellie in ‘GAME OF THRONES’’ Bella Ramsey

    Mentioning either The Last of Us (2013) or The Last of Us Part II (2020) means talking about one of the best and most impactful games of the past decade. It came with little surprise when it became official that HBO had secured the rights for a small screen adaptation last March, managing to secure Neil Druckman to write the story, he who is arguably the mastermind behind the game series. Last November the show got officially picked up for an entire season and we are now getting our first news regarding the cast.

    The biggest roles will obviously be the ones of Joel and Ellie, and it now seems that HBO has found the right actor for the latter in Game Of Throne‘s Bella Ramsey, who caught the eye of audiences worldwide for her incredible portrayal of Lyanna Mormont. Bella Ramsey is currently 17 years old, a bit older than Ellie was when we first met her in the first game and this might give some credence to the rumors that the show will not try to retell Joel and Ellie’s story, but will perhaps try to fill some of the gaps in the story that both games didn’t quite fill.

    We can certainly understand how Ramsey is seen as a good fit for the role, taking into consideration what we saw from her in Game of Thrones and how Ellie evolves through the games, becoming a force to be reckoned with, much in the same light Lyanna was regarded throughout Westeros.

    HBO’s The Last of Us doesn’t yet have a release date but with casting choices being made, we should probably get updates on the production’s timeline in the coming weeks.

    Source: Hollywood Reporter

  • RUMOR: HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’ Eyeing Mahershala Ali for the Role of Joel

    RUMOR: HBO’s ‘The Last Of Us’ Eyeing Mahershala Ali for the Role of Joel

    We’ve been hotly anticipating any information on the upcoming live-action adaptation of The Last Of Us. HBO will adapt the acclaimed video game series into a series alongside its original creators. Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckman and his writing team will be working on the series with Chernobyl‘s Craig Mazin. Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov joined the production to direct the pilot in January, so we expected some casting rumors in the coming weeks. Originally, Johan Renck was going to direct it but had to drop out due to scheduling conflict. Just a month after they got their director, it seems they are already getting their casting together. Illuminerdi revealed that HBO offered the role of Joel to Mahershala Ali.

    It looks like while the series will stick to the original game’s storyline, they are flexible when it comes to the casting. Ali is a powerhouse in the industry right now, so he would be a fantastic find for the franchise. His character will remain mostly the same, as he’ll face the same dramatic backstory from the original game. Joel’s morality has faded, but a sign of hope in the form of a 13-year-old Ellie, who is the key to solving the fungus-infected future.

    Illumerndi also points out that they’ve offered the role to Matthew McConaughey, who turned it down. It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll accept the role, as he will join the upcoming MCU adaptation of Blade. There is a chance that the potential casting of Ellie is also in the works. This casting rumor might hint at the show potentially taking a unique direction to distinguish itself from the original game.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Illuminerdi