Chernobyl director Johan Renck to helm The Last of Us pilot for HBO

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Sharpen your shivs, gather your med kits, and grab a gas mask for all of those pesky spores, because it's been announced that CHERNOBYL director Johan Renck will helm the pilot episode for HBO's THE LAST OF US. Based on Naughty Dog's 2013 award-winning video game, THE LAST OF US hails from game creator/writer Neil Druckman, who's boarded the project as a co-writer and producer. Joining Druckman in bringing the game's post-apocalyptic world to life on the small screen is Craig Mazin, who's developing the series in addition to working with Druckman on the script. Mazin will also executive produce.

During a recent interview with Discussing Film, Renck revealed that he's attached to the new series, and that he'll be directing the show's pilot episode.

“I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it," said Renck. "It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot,” Renck then teased that his participation could be extended beyond the pilot by saying, “Then we’ll see how it goes on further.”

Here's the official synopsis for Naughty Dog's THE LAST OF US video game:

20 years after a pandemic has radically changed known civilization, infected humans run wild and survivors are killing each other for food, weapons; whatever they can get their hands on. Joel, a violent survivor, is hired to smuggle a 14 year-old girl, Ellie, out of an oppressive military quarantine zone, but what starts as a small job soon transforms into a brutal journey across the U.S.”

“Both Craig and I, we are working with each other again and we will work with each other on other things because we like each other,” Renck gushed about working alongside Mazin, once again.

This update for HBO's THE LAST OF US comes just shy of two weeks before Naughty Dog's release of THE LAST OF US PART II for the Playstation 4 console on June 19. Taking place 5 years after the events of the original game, the sequel finds Ellie, now 19 years old, continuing her fight against the outbreak of the Cordyceps Brain Infection that all but wiped out most of the world's population. Players will assume control of Ellie for the sequel, as well as her traveling companion Joel, who's now in his mid-fifties at the start of the game.