Summary
The Last of Usseemingly made director David Fincher glad hisWorld War Zsequel never came to fruition.
The Last of Usseries sought to adapt its gritty source material into live-action. The extensive effort paid off, as the show was a massive success, withThe Last of Ussetting a new bar for video game adaptationswith its first season.
WhileThe Last of Usdidn’t break the video game adaptation curse first, it was a runaway success and covered much ground. Speaking toGQabout his latest project, a black comedy with themes of revenge titledThe Killer,Fincher revealed thatThe Last of Usmade him glad he didn’t go through with aWorld War Zsequel he’d been attached to direct. When asked about the canceled sequel to 2013’sWorld War Z,Filcher responded, “Well, it was a little like The Last of Us. I’m glad that we didn’t do what we were doing, because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff. In our title sequence, we were going to use the little parasite… they used it in their title sequence, and in that wonderful opening with the Dick Cavett, David Frost-style talk show.” Fincher added that there are still “some talk” about doing a more accurateWorld War Zadaptation.
World War Zwas an action horror film adapted from a novel of the same name by Max Brooks and released in 2013 by Paramount. Despite several issues during production, the film was a success, and the executives and top brass at Paramount envisioned it as a trilogy that would be a more grounded but gun-heavy ordeal than AMC’sThe Walking Dead.Despite pre-production starting up and Fincher being attached to direct, the project was still scrapped, allegedly due to the Chinese government banning such films at the time, leading to a large hole in the potential market. While the planned sequel will probably never see the light of day, fans did get some consolation in the form of aWorld War Zvideo game announcedat 2017’s Game Awards, which is still active today.
While many fans believe aWorld War Zsequel could improve upon the original, it is hard to fault Fincher’s logic here.The Last of Ushad the double advantage of being an adaptation of a well-written, cohesive story with interesting characters that appealed to a modern audience and being a video game adaptation, bringing in an established audience alongside existing fans of the genre. Considering the similarities mentioned, there is no doubt that the two projects would’ve drawn unhelpful comparisons from viewers, potentially dulling the impact of both.
The legacyWorld War Zhas built is well earned, andThe Last of Uscan teach other video game adaptationshow to properly and faithfully give fans an engaging live-action experience that complements the dynamic medium of gaming without coming across as a cash grab or failing to stand alone as a piece of media.
The Last of Usseason 1 is currently available for streaming on Max.
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