Chernobyl director will helm the Last of Us TV series pilot

Chernobyl director Johan Renck will helm the first episode of HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us TV series.

Renck, who won an Emmy Award for his directorial work on Chernobyl, has previously directed episodes of Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Halt and Catch Fire and Bates Motel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin will co-write and executive produce the Last of Us TV adaptation with Naughty Dog vice president Neil Druckmann, the creative director and writer of The Last of Us and its upcoming sequel, The Last of Us Part 2.

Carolyn Strauss (Game of Thrones, Chernobyl) will also executive produce along with Naughty Dog president Evan Wells.

The adaptation will be the first television series from PlayStation Productions, a studio formed by Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt its original game properties for film and TV.

It will cover the events of the first game and may include content based on The Last of Us Part 2, which will be released for PS4 on June 19.

“I felt things for Joel and Ellie. I was moved,” Mazin told GQ in a newly published feature on the making of The Last of Us Part 2.

“It’s ironic that in a medium where technology has progressed so rapidly and incessantly, the narratives so often feel 8-bit. That’s not because of lack of plot. Video games have been drowning in plot for years. The problem was always the lack of compelling characters.

“Neil brought emotional sophistication, but, maybe more importantly, he brought confidence – confidence that story and characters were worth stopping for.”

Druckmann also told the publication that his next title could be The Last of Us Part 3 or a new intellectual property.