Neil Druckmann will direct some of The Last of Us TV series

Neil Druckmann will be one of the directors on the first season of The Last of Us TV series.

An updated production list on the Directors Guild of Canada website lists the Naughty Dog co-president as one of five directors for the first season.

The pilot episode was directed by Kantemir Balagov, who posted a photo of an empty slate on Instagram last month when filming wrapped, along with the message: “My job here is done.”

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

Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is co-writing and executive producing the show alongside Neil Druckmann. Mazin is also listed among the show’s directors.

The production, which is due to wrap in June 2022, is expected to cover the events of The Last of Us, which was released in 2013, and may include content based on The Last of Us Part 2, which launched in 2020.

In February, Game of Thrones actors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were cast as the show’s lead characters, Joel and Ellie. Nico Parker (who starred in Dumbo), the daughter of actress Thandie Newton, is playing Joel’s daughter, Sarah.

In July photos taken from the set of the series showed that filming was underway in Alberta, Canada, with streets redesigned to look like the streets of Austin, Texas.

Druckmann, the writer and director behind The Last of Us games and Uncharted 4, was promoted to co-president of developer Naughty Dog in December 2020.

Druckmann’s promotion came in recognition of the hugely successful game projects he’s led at Naughty Dog, including last year’s The Last of Us: Part 2, which broke multiple PlayStation sales records.

The writer and designer had spent three years as vice president. Prior to that, he had worked as a designer on the Uncharted and Jak and Daxter games, and had been at the company since 2004.