“Will [adaption X] break the video game curse?” is a debate as cyclical and pointless in entertainment criticism as “Are video games art?” is in games media, but Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin is intent on blending the two together to make his press tour as insufferable as possible.
Speaking to the New Yorker—in, of course, a piece indeed titled “Can The Last of Us Break the Curse of Bad Video Game Adaptations?”—Mazin discussed the game’s transition from a player-controlled experience to a passive one, and how in the process that will say something about the series’ approach to violence. This would be an interesting idea, given that The Last of Us as a game series has always had to walk the narrative tightrope of telling a story about the ways violence can destroy people while also being an action-horror game where your primary interaction with the world as a player is blowing the brains out of people and fungal zombies.
