The Last of Us TV adaptation not “sole” reason for Part 1 PS5 remake, PlayStation head says

There have been some rumblings that Sony, along with developer Naughty Dog, decided to release its The Last of Us Part 1 remake for the PlayStation 5 (and eventually PC) to capitalise on the upcoming HBO series inspired by the game.

However, PlayStation head Hermen Hulst has made it known that this is not the case. Well, at least, it is not entirely the case.

Chatting to Axios, Hulst stated that the initial 2013 release of The Last of Us was “a little ahead of its time in terms of its creative vision”. Hulst claimed that the limitations of technology at this time meant that Naughty Dog’s ideas ultimately had to be dialled back a notch or two.

This is something that has been widely shared by others involved in the remake’s development, with many stating Naughty Dog wanted this PS5 release to be the ‘definitive’ version of the game. However, the subject of its release in tandem with the upcoming show’s development has never been addressed officially, at least until now.

Following his comment about the limitations in technology during the game’s first release (the recent PS5 release marks its third edition), Hulst went on to state that the upcoming TV adaptation based on The Last of Us was “not the sole reason, or maybe not even the main reason” for the recent Part 1 remake.

But, while this may now be the official line (there are, of course, likely to be many out there that will beg to differ on this), Hulst did say that seeing the two releases coincide could be considered the “Holy Grail” for all involved.

Meanwhile, while we still do not have a firm release date for the upcoming TV series outside of a tenuous 2023 window, we did recently get the first full trailer for HBO’s The Last of Us.

This new trailer gave us a closer look at Ellie and Joel in action as they make their way across America. Along with seeing more of the two protagonists, we also got to have a better, but albeit still brief, look at the series’ infected Clickers – complete with their unmistakable and haunting noises. Other characters such as Ellie’s friend Riley and Firefly leader Marlene also made a showing.

Elsewhere in the news, Bella Ramsey, who plays Ellie in the upcoming show alongside Pedro Pascal’s Joel, recently revealed she was advised not to play through Naughty Dog’s games before taking on the role.

“I did watch some of the gameplay on YouTube just to get a sense of it,” she stated. But as for actual hands-on experience with the game, that was a definitive “nope” from the actress.