Currently in development at HBO, The Last of Us series has just added Nick Offerman in a major role. The Parks and Recreation star has boarded the video game adaptation to play Bill, a character featured in the original video game. Con O’Neill was previously attached to the guest starring role, but he reportedly backed out due to a scheduling conflict. Offerman will appear alongside Murray Bartlett’s Frank as two survivors holed up in an isolated town in a post-pandemic world.
The Last of Us is directly based on the PlayStation video game of the same name. It carries over a similar plot, following hardened survivor and smuggler-for-hire Joel (Pedro Pascal) escorting teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey) on a journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Both hostile raiders and zombie-like mutants serve as threats in this bleak new world, many years after the fall of humanity.
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A handful of other cast members were previously revealed as well. Gabriel Luna will be featured in a supporting role as Joel’s brother Tommy while Nico Parker plays Joel’s daughter Sarah. Merle Dandridge, who voices Marlene in the video game, plays the same role in the TV series; the character is the leader of the Fireflies resistance group Joel and Ellie encounter in the game.
The Last of Us is written by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin, who teamed up with the game’s writer and creative director Neil Druckmann to executive produce the series. Carolyn Strauss, Rose Lam, Naughty Dog president Evan Wells, and PlayStation Productions’ Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan are also executive producing. Kantemir Balagov is on board to direct the pilot with Jasmila Žbanić and Ali Abbasi also serving as directors. The series is a joint collaboration between Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, and Naughty Dog.
“[T]he one anxiety I think fans of something have is that, when the property gets licensed to someone else, those people don’t really understand it, or are gonna change it, or make it stupid,” Mazin previously said on BBC Sounds’ Must Watch webcast, promising a faithful adaptation. “And in this case, I’m doing it with the guy [Druckmann] who did it. And so the changes that we’re making are designed to fill things out and expand. Not to undo, but rather to enhance.”
An official release date hasn’t been set for The Last of Us series at this time. This news comes to us from Variety.
