The Last of Us: Chernobyl's Johan Renck To Direct HBO Pilot

photo courtesy Naughty Dog

As the world continue to deal with rioting, protesting, and the continued response to a global pandemic, there is not greater time for some good news finally. It looks like the upcoming HBO series that's based on The Last of Us is making some forward momentum. It's been announced that Johan Renck, who worked tirelessly on the cable outlet's Chernobyl series has been officially signed to tackle the pilot episode of the series. Renck had already committed to being an executive producer for the show but will now be using his talents to direct. He'll be paired with Chernobyl's show creator Craig Mazin once again. Obviously, The Last of Us is one of the most popular video games of the last decade and still maintains a massive cult following. 

Renck recently spoke with Discussing Film and had quite a bit to say about the series and how it will translate to the live action television format:

“I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it. It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot. Then we’ll see how it goes on further. I mean, both Craig and I, we are working with each other again and we will work with each other on other things because we like each other.”

He continued:

“So with the The Last of Us, this is something that we’re discussing. We’re having weekly calls, Craig and I and also Neil [Druckmann] who created the game, about various approaches and how to deal with that. How to deal with the fact that a video game character is way further than a character from a book. But also it’s more different to deal with than a real person.”

-CG