Naughty Dog‘s Neil Druckmann has discussed his decision to step away from the TV adapation of The Last of Us for the third season, stating he’d accomplished his “crazy goal” of elevating video games.
While he’s now returned to full-time video game development on the forthcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, he will remain somewhat involved in The Last of Us at a “very high level” to make sure it’s “as deeply faithful as Season One was”.
“I feel like that is the gold standard for this kind of adaptation, while enjoying all these beautiful expansions that happen naturally with the rest of the team and how they’re working on Season Three,” Druckmann told Variety. “So that is where my involvement will stay is at that very, very high level.”
Druckmann announced his decision to step back from the TV show in July, though told Variety he made the decision when the writers’ room for Season Three was about to commence.
“I looked at what’s in front of me, what would the next season might look like,” he said, “and with all the various Last of Us things I’m working on – not just the show – with all the various games I’m working on, the biggest one that takes up most of my time is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, our next big IP for Naughty Dog and PlayStation, it felt like I could better serve all of my responsibilities if I stayed at a higher level.”
This was also having achieved a goal of elevating The Last of Us beyond players of the game.
“I felt like that story could find a bigger audience for people that will never play video games,” said Druckmann. “I wanted to elevate Naughty Dog, and PlayStation has been a home for me for 21 years now, and it’s given me all the support to tell these wonderful stories, and I wanted to elevate video games. It was such a crazy goal, but I wanted someone to watch this show and have no idea it was based on the video game, and then be like, ‘Wait, that’s based on a video game?'”
Druckmann added he’s learned a lot from his time on the show, “even just as far as the craft of making cinematic storytelling”.
“There’s so much that overlaps with my work at Naughty Dog that I felt like I took quite a bit away from that,” he said. “I think I could better serve this show and other adaptations like it in the future, having learned all this stuff – but my first responsibility, my first love, is video games, and it’s at Naughty Dog.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Druckmann stated Intergalactic would be the studio’s most ambitious game to date.
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