As The Last of Us makes a triumphant return for series two, James Bennett asks what it takes to turn a video game into TV gold
Enter Netflix, waving big bucks. Its target is a homespun UK cartoon that went viral on YouTube and spawned a spin-off video game. The story’s creator takes the Netflix deal, leaving purist fans furious at her “sellout”. So furious that she winds up sprawled in the very graveyard where her story is set. Stabbed to death.
Phew! Yes, video game story arcs can be hot properties – witness The Last of Us, returning in triumph this month for series two – but are they really to die for?
The scenario above, you may realise, comes from JK Rowling’s sixth Cormoran Strike novel, The Ink Black Heart, televised last December in BBC One’s ongoing series of adaptations. Happily, HBO’s The Last of Us has so far managed to keep gamer fans the right side of murderous rage while also crossing over to a huge TV audience and winning rave reviews.
Only Amazon Prime’s equally post-apocalyptic Fallout, also now filming for series two, has pulled off such a coup among TV shows that began life as video games. So what’s the secret of successfully turning a video game into a TV sensation – and are there more gems out there in gamer-land, ripe for plunder?
Bronagh Monahan, co-founder of talent agency and production company MonRae, advises: “Respect the source material but don’t treat it as gospel. The Last of Us worked because it understood that the heart of the game wasn’t the zombies but the relationship between [the protagonists] Joel and Ellie. The key is to find the emotional core and the unique mood, then translate that into a story that works for TV. Hiring people who actually like games helps.”
As for the next potential hit, Monahan says: “Margot Robbie’s prodco, LuckyChap, buying the rights to The Sims is genius. I could imagine a dystopian Truman Show feel to it.”
Another tip comes from Jon Wardle, Director of the National Film and Television School: “I’d love to see Red Dead Redemption as an HBO series – it has the depth and emotional weight of a great prestige drama.”
Wardle says there is no “universal secret” to success. “But a key reason The Last of Us and Fallout resonated is that they were made by people who love and understand the games.”
Lisa Opie, a former BBC Studios executive and now MD at the video game publisher Ubisoft, is in an ideal position to comment on the TV/video game transition, having crossed that bridge in her career. After years of lacklustre adaptations, she says that both Fallout and The Last of Us (known by fans as TLOU) “have undoubtedly broken the mould”.
Unlike many TV viewers of TLOU, she is well acquainted with the game: “As a player, you have agency – you define the narrative. In ‘passive media’ you’re taken there. When I watched the series, I was constantly clocking that I’d been in that scene, sat in that car. But I didn’t mind being guided through the drama. The fact that it was such a faithful recreation of an already much-loved story for gamers was important. The partnership between Neil Druckmann of [game developer] Naughty Dog and Craig Mazin [creator and producer of HBO’s masterful Chernobyl] was powerful.”
TLOU is set in a zombie-ravaged post-apocalyptic America, where a fungal parasite has left society in ruins. Launched in 2023, soon after the Covid pandemic, the drama hit home for millions around the world. The Guardian’s five-star review declared it “one of the finest TV shows you’ll see this year”: action-packed, yes, but also profound, intimate, meditative and often deeply moving.
Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie) – as father figure/daughter figure on a quest to save the planet – have immediate screen chemistry and drive a compelling narrative. Yet Mazin takes the risky decision to leave them behind, sometimes for almost entire episodes, to follow fascinating detours.
In the US alone, there were 30 million viewers per episode, Emmys galore and a legion of fans clamouring for more. This month, they get exactly that (no spoilers here) – along with the news that TLOU has already been commissioned for a third series.
Fallout, shown last year on Amazon Prime, also pulled off the trick of winning both critical acclaim and huge audiences. What’s more, it was a laugh. Another five-star review in The Guardian called it “funny, self-aware and tense – an astonishing balancing act”. We start with an atomic mushroom cloud obliterating 1950s America, then fast-forward (very fast and very forward) two centuries to life inside a bunker. Harmony reigns... until we see the horrors on the surface.
“Season one of Fallout was extraordinary. This blows it out of the water”
All this is drawn from a video game universe, created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, that has expanded over the past 20 years and offers a huge reservoir of material for further TV series. Series two is filming now. Walton Goggins, who returns as the nasally-challenged Ghoul, has said: “Season one was extraordinary – but this blows it out of the water.”
Bringing such stories from bedroom console to front-room TV set has long been seen as a way for TV to woo vanishing younger viewers. Recent months have brought much hand-wringing about Gen Z: they don’t like work, don’t support democracy... and don’t even watch TV! Wardle comments: “TLOU succeeded not by bringing over the Gen Z audience but by expanding the game’s story world to connect with older audiences.”
Opie is ready with facts and figures about what young people do want: “Gen Z loves video games: 90% of them play regularly. Among Gen Alpha [born in 2010 or after], the number is even higher. In the UK, Gen Alpha gamers are especially engaged, with 62% playing for over five hours a week, compared with only 17% of Gen Z gamers.
Why are they hooked? “Video games fulfil so many more ‘need states’ than TV. Yes, they’re offering entertainment, but they’re also toys, puzzles and places to hang out.”
Talking of Gen Alpha, many of its members will be storming multiplexes this month for A Minecraft Movie. Netflix is also joining the fray with a TV series based on the world’s bestselling game.
Clients of Bronagh Monahan’s agency include popular YouTubers who boast millions of viewers for their Minecraft content. She says: “Minecraft fans are a unique breed. They’re fiercely loyal but also deeply protective. The movie and TV show will need to capture that sense of wonder – not just turn it into a generic blocky adventure.”
Wardle is the father of young children and says they can’t wait to see the movie. But the jury is still out: “I don’t think the transition is all upside – if the film turns out to be bad, it could make my kids see the game as less cool. Instead of adding to the experience, it could actually diminish it.”
Rather than cherry-picking video games for “the next big adaptation”, many in both industries realise that the future is one of convergence between the two platforms. First, though, the TV industry must shape up, says Monahan: “Its relationship with gaming can often feel like a parent trying to impress their kids’ mates: they’re getting better, but there’s still the occasional condescending pat on the head.
“The success of shows like TLOU has certainly forced some recalibration, but let’s not pretend the snobbery has evaporated entirely.”
“The holy grail is the ability to build once and deploy across multiple formats”
The TV industry might also do well to tap into the raw creativity of the likes of Jon Wardle’s games students at the NFTS. He says: “Game engine tools like Unreal are now widely used in film and TV, driving the rise of virtual production. As a result, the skills and expertise my game students have are in high demand on virtual production stages across the country. But, in general, many game students are surprisingly indifferent to the opportunity.
“They got into games to create games, not just to serve as a resource for film and TV production.”
He sees the future like this: “The holy grail is the ability to build once and deploy across multiple formats. So if you create the Death Star, for example, it can seamlessly exist as an environment in a game, a TV series and feature film – without remaking it each time.
“We haven’t seen this fully realised yet, but I think that we’re not far off.”
Monahan adds: “It’s not about the graphics, it’s about the feeling and the connection. Gaming is immersive, interactive and deeply personal. If TV can capture a fraction of that magic, it’ll be on to a winner.”
First, though, it must “stop assuming every gamer is a 14-year-old boy. I’d have hoped we’ve moved on from that”.
Lisa Opie cites a tweet last year from OpenAI boss Sam Altman: “Movies are going to become video games and video games are going to become something unimaginably better.”
She adds: “The opportunities for transmedia are only just emerging. Imagine a world where TV and games worked together – where you could watch an episode on TV that deepened the connection you’d made in a game, by creating a richer backstory – or showing you the future of the character you become.
“Imagine entering a world in a game that you knew how to navigate because you’d already seen it in a film or series.”
She concludes: “I’m excited by the creative opportunities that bring us closer together. There is so much that TV and video games can learn from each other.”
So, for anyone concerned about the future, the answer would seem to be... console yourself!
