With rave reviews and a 97% rating on review aggregator "Rotten Tomatoes", the series, which airs from Monday in the UK (Sky, Now TV) and France (Prime Video), is doing well. party to sign the first success of the year on streaming platforms, ten years after the release of the video game on Playstation.

Adapted by one of its creators, Neil Druckmann, and Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”), the story is faithful to the Naughty Dog studio original and follows the duo formed by tragedy-stricken trafficker Joel and Ellie , the teenager he must protect, the last hope of a world almost destroyed by a virus, where zombies are rampant.

The nine episodes take place in a post-apocalyptic America, locked down by a military dictatorship.

Joel and Ellie are played by Pedro Pascal, shock policeman from the Narcos series, who also starred in Game of Thrones and The Mandalorian, and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones).

For HBO Max, which has just announced a price increase in the United States (from 14.99 to 15.99 dollars for the monthly subscription without advertising), the stakes are high.

Actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey at the premiere of "The Last of Us" series, January 9, 2023 in Los Angeles © Frazer Harrison / Getty/AFP/Archives

In a context where the viewer no longer knows where to turn with so many new series coming out every week, the platform “clearly remains the benchmark for original series, but its parent company, Warner Bros.

Discovery is at a crossroads in terms of how much money it's willing to spend on projects," TV REV analyst John Cassillo told AFP.

Rare Achievements

If we no longer count the adaptations of emblematic video games, they are deemed not to have the same success in cinema or on the small screen.

According to the list compiled by the "box office mojo" site, only five films of the genre have exceeded $400 million in revenue worldwide, and the first, Warcraft (2016, $439 million), tops the list. 288th place in the ranking all films combined.

From Lara Croft Tomb Raider (2001) with Angelina Jolie, to Sonic The Hedgehog in 2020 (and its 2nd installment in 2022), through the Resident Evil series, and more recently the animated series Arcane on Netflix, inspired by League of Legends and rewarded at the Emmy Awards (2022), successes are rather rare.

"What makes a video game entertaining does not necessarily make a movie or a series entertaining, and vice versa", also underlines John Cassillo, noting that most adaptations remain "stuck between two universes".

This time, according to him, "the post-apocalyptic story is inspired by a popular genre, even outside of video games" and that of the "characters is convincing".

Neil Druckmann at the premiere of "The Last Of Us" series, January 9, 2023 in Los Angeles © Frazer Harrison / Getty/AFP/Archives

In an interview with the New York Times, Neil Druckmann explains that "the most important thing was to keep the soul" of the game, not necessarily entire sequences.

"What makes the series are the characters, and their philosophical questions such as + does the end justify the means + or + how big is the tribe you have to take care of +", he adds.

Many other adaptation projects are in any case expected, including a new Super Mario, a third Sonic and a Gran Turismo in the cinema, or an animated series Tomb Raider on Netflix.

© 2023 AFP