Incredible as it sounds, HBO has David Attenborough to thank for its newest TV series The Last of Us. While watching an episode of Planet Earth, Neil Druckmann was struck by a clip featuring an ant slowly being taken over by a brain-eating fungus.
“I immediately thought, ‘Why has no one used this as an origin for a zombie outbreak?’ Because that’s exactly what it is,” he says. That lightbulb moment ultimately became a video game – the bestselling The Last of Us franchise from Naughty Dog studio – where Druckmann is co-president – and from there, an adaptation starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, which will be landing on screens on January 16.
