The Last of Us set video points to new scenes filling in the game's time skip
This scene shows the government's fall as citizens rebel
A new video from The Last of Us TV show points to expanded backstory scenes showing rebels taking on the government.
First reported by Eurogamer earlier today, the set video just below shows the HBO adaptation shooting a scene in a city environment. The scene appears to depict military transports slowly making their way through a discontent crowd, who scream "freedom" and "f*ck FEDRA" at the passing troops.
🚨 HBO filming scenes for #TheLastofUs.They scream “Freedom!” and “F*ck Fedra!” pic.twitter.com/iYBF2wdCHIMay 5, 2022
What's interesting about this footage is that it never appeared in the original 2013 game from Naughty Dog. The initial events of the game take place on the eve of the infectious outbreak, and then skip ahead 20 years later, well after the fall of civilization, and to a point where it's chiefly survivors fending for themselves outside of military-controlled zones in cities.
This set video seems to confirm that there'll be scenes depicting what happened in that 20-year gap. It looks like there'll be scenes in the immediate aftermath of the outbreak, where government forces from FEDRA are trying to contain the outbreak by isolating citizens, and the citizens aren't too happy about that one bit. Who knows if we'll even be seeing Pedro Pascal's Joel or Bella Ramsey's Ellie during these segments.
Then again, a producer has said the HBO adaptation will "deviate greatly" from the source material in some cases. Speaking in an interview last year in March, Naughty Dog director and HBO adaptation producer Neil Druckmann said "things sometimes stay pretty close," but some episodes have "deviated greatly from the story," and he can't wait for people to see them.
Maybe it shouldn't be a massive surprise that we're already seeing the ground laid for scenes filling in a huge 20-year hole in The Last of Us, then. We've got a fair while to wait until the HBO adaptation is finally with us though: earlier this year, the company revealed it wouldn't be launching until 2023, and with scenes still being shot after months upon months of filming in Canada, it's very much still a work in progress.
While you're waiting, check out our guide to the best video game movies of all time.
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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.