PlayStation Productions head Asad Qizilbash says that the upcoming TV series based on the company’s acclaimed “God of War” and “Horizon: Zero Dawn” franchises will get the same amount of care as HBO’s “The Last of Us”.
Screen adaptations of video game properties have often struggled to be successful on a creative level at translating a video game medium to the screen. The few live-action ones that have succeeded, like the first “Silent Hill” or “Mortal Kombat” films have generally done so by getting the tone right at the expense of various other things.
“The Last of Us” changed that, delivering a faithful adaptation on multiple levels. Whilst there were a handful of compromises – a good few of those changes made ended up being for the better as they were about expanding the world in a way the game couldn’t do due to it being stuck to Joel and Ellie’s perspectives only.
In addition, those changes were all done with the heavy involvement of game creator Neil Druckmann. The end result wasn’t perfect, but it certainly set a template that many game-to-screen adaptations will no doubt wish to emulate in the future.
That includes the “God of War” series at Amazon and the “Horizon” series at Netflix. Adapting two of the company’s biggest original IPs, Qizilbash tells the Official PlayStation Podcast (via ComicBook.com) they will adopt “The Last of Us” blueprint:
“The same care and formula that we did with The Last of Us, we’re going to be applying for Horizon [and] God of War. We’re gonna tell the story of the game because we can, because it’s a show, we have the time to do it, we’ve got the episodes to be able to do it.
We’re not trying to cram it into a two-hour movie. You’re gonna get the story of the game, but we’re going to also find opportunities to go wider and explore other characters and do more worldbuilding that you can’t do in the game because of agency.
That’s the exciting thing for me, fans are going to love it because they’re going to see that game come to life, but also a lot of new things like what they did with The Last of Us.”
The comment seems to shoot down reports that the “Horizon” series would be a prequel as such – offering an expanded take on the world of the game as opposed to an adaptation of “Horizon Zero Dawn” itself.
Both those shows are in early development, so it’s not clear when either series will arrive. Recently Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin confirmed they are “months, not years away from starting” production on a second season of “The Last of Us”.
