Jeffrey Pierce, who plays Jeffrey in The Last of Us, claims that the PlayStation adaptation may have initially looked very different.
Pierce, who plays Tommy Miller in the The Last of Us video games, has had the unique opportunity to witness the franchise’s expansion over the past ten years, including landing the role of Perry in the current HBO Max series, which is based on the original Naughty Dog game.
Yet it wasn’t always the intention to produce this well-regarded television adaptation. The Last of Us was initially planned as a blockbuster film for theatrical release, with Sam Raimi set to direct.
In fact, the show took even another turn away from being the prestigious HBO Max thriller it really is today.
“The Last Of Us” Animated Series
Jeffrey Pierce, the program head for HBO’s The Last of Us and the creator of the The Last of Us video games, said in an exclusive interview with The Direct that the show almost became an animated television series.
When asked if he anticipated playing Tommy, his video game character, again for the HBO Max series, Pierce responded, “No, not during the HBO show.”
He did note, however, that this adaptation had gone through “a few distinct versions” throughout time, including “the movie” and a “motion-capture cinematic animated series”:
“No, not in the course of the HBO show. There have been a couple of different iterations over time. There was a movie at one point. There was a motion-capture cinematic animated series at one point. And both of those are things that I thought, ‘I got a pretty good shot at being involved to some degree.’”
The Last of Us actor continued, “It was a long while ago and a lot of white hair in the past,” so as years unfolded and names like Mahershala Ali and Pedro Pascal began to be mentioned, he understood “[he was] not going to play Tommy.”
“But that was a long time ago and a lot of white beards in the past. So… I think initially they had talked to Mahershala Ali about playing Joel, which is an obvious cue that I’m not gonna play Tommy… And when they cast Pedro [Pascal], I knew like, yeah, that was certainly not going to happen regardless, I’m older than Pedro Pascal. So I was not under any illusions about that, for sure.”
Previously, Neil Druckman of Naughty Dog described the process on the official podcast when discussing how they decided to create the HBO show.
“Our mutual friend for all of us, Shannon Woodward, while working on The Last of Us Part 2 where she was a cast member, she made an introduction for me and Craig [Mazin, co-showrunner], At the time I’d already had one failed version of trying to adapt this into a movie where it was just too big for a movie script. No matter how hard I tried, I could not crack it.”
Jensen Ackles from Supernatural, who previously acknowledged that he was “pushing hard” for the part of Joel in The Last of Us, may have also appeared in a different version of the film.
“I was really pushing hard, I don’t think I was really in the mix or even had a shot at it, but for Pedro Pascal’s role in The Last of Us,” he said at a Supernatural panel at Nashcon 2022. “That was really high up on my radar.”
“The Last Of Us”-Based Animated Series: Could It Work?
Although it is impossible to predict the exact extent to which an animated The Last of Us project might have succeeded. It is not difficult to imagine it succeeding with the benefit of hindsight that comes with living in 2023.
In subsequent years, other R-rated cartoon video game adaptations have enjoyed popularity. On Netflix, shows like Castlevania, Arcane, and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners have all gained fans and received almost overwhelming critical praise.
It wouldn’t have been shocking if The Last of Us had chosen to adopt the animated route if work on a TV series adaptation were to start at this time.
The title, nevertheless, has always had a gritty, highbrow HBO drama vibe about it. It is difficult to imagine this happening in any other manner after watching it unfold in live action on the network.
The Last of Us airs every Sunday at 9pm EDT on HBO Max.
