Go Behind The Scenes Of HBO’s The Last Of Us Pilot In A New Video

In conjunction with the pilot of HBO’s The Last of Us, a behind-the-scenes video has been released. The video features interviews with actors Pedro Pascal, Nico Parker, Bella Ramsey, and Merle Dandridge, as well as executive producers Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin. You can watch it below.

The video itself mostly goes over the plot and emotional beats of the pilot, with the actors and writers commenting on the action and showing off behind-the-scenes footage. For example, Nico Parker, who plays Joel’s birth daughter Sarah, remarks on the series’ use of practical effects, saying, “you could really immerse yourself because it was all there in front of you.” Craig Mazin remarks on the difficult position Nico Parker was in as a performer, saying, “It was important for us to present the audience with a Sarah that we felt we could follow for the rest of the series.”

Merle Dandridge, who also played Marlene in the original game, discuses growing into playing the role again. “It’s another thing to step in front of the camera and embody her with my own instrument. I had a couple of things on my side… I aged into her a little bit and I guess my deep passion and love for her.” Though she didn’t think that they would cast her, as soon as she heard about the show, she wanted in. In the video, she says, “I don’t remember when I first heard about [the show], but when I did I was like ‘Mommy want that.'”

In other behind-the-scenes details, the showrunners also recently discussed the various iterations the show’s cold open went through. Euphoria’s Storm Reid was also recently cast to play Riley, a character who you might know from the DLC Left Behind. The show has received rave reviews, including in GameSpot’s The Last of Us HBO review, in which reviewer Mark Delaney gave it a 9/10 and said “The Last of Us on HBO feels like the beginning of a new era for live-action video game adaptations.”