‘The Last of Us’: Video Game Director Criticizes He Won’t Get ‘A Penny’ From Series

With just one chapter, ‘The Last of Us’ is on its way to becoming one of HBO’s biggest hits. The episode in question amassed more than 10 million viewers in just two days and had the second-best premiere for the cable network in a decade, surpassed only by the debut of “La Casa del Dragón.” Critics almost unanimously applauded the video game adaptation and the work of Craig Mazin (creator of “Chernobyl”) and Neil Druckmann, one of the creators of the Naughty Dog game at the helm of the series.

But not everyone is happy with this project. Druckmann wasn’t the only “father” of the Joel and Ellie PlayStation story. Although the screenplay is by him, the video game was directed by Druckmann and Bruce Straley. He didn’t participate in the creation of “The Last of Us” series, but as a vital part in the creation of the video game it’s based on, he was expected to have some kind of accreditation, not to mention financial reward: “It’s a matter of unionization, that someone who was part of the co-creation of this world and the characters won’t appear in the credits or receive a penny for the work they’ve done… Maybe we need unions in the video industry of games to protect creators” he told the Los Angeles Times, while Sony and HBO declined to comment.

Straley decided to leave Naughty Dog in 2016, the year in which he released his last game for them: ‘Uncharted 4’, his latest collaboration also with Neil Druckmann. At that time the project for the series was not yet underway, but the idea of ​​making it into a film had been floated, which was ultimately scrapped because Druckmann did not see the possibility of condensing the entire game into two hours, and he he was not convinced even by the request to make the film “Bigger and Sexier”. Today, Bruce Straley is preparing the launch of Wildflower Interactive, his video game studio.

Depeche Mode score a Kate Bush

The director of the video game won’t see a penny from the HBO series, but whoever will perceive anything of the success of ‘The Last of Us’ is Depeche Mode. One of the group’s songs, “Never Let Me Down Again”, plays at an important moment in the first chapter, which has led to a huge increase in views of the song on streaming platforms. The 1987 theme tripled its listenership in the US from the day the episode premiered to the next, according to Billboard. On January 15, it had 25,000 plays and on Monday, the 16th, it had 83,000. The power of playing in a series at an important moment, says Kate Bush.

‘The Last of Us’ features new chapters every Monday on HBO Max.