In a recent interview between Neil Druckmann and Alex Garland, it was discussed right off the bat how The Last of Us was one of the inspirations behind the creation of 28 Years Later. This movie is one of the most long-awaited zombie flicks in a very long time, emerging almost twenty years after the preceding title in the series.
Neil Druckmann heads Naughty Dog, the studio behind The Last of Us, while Alex Garland is the lead writer on the infamous ’28 Days’ trilogy. In the interview, Garland showered The Last of Us with praise and revealed that it was leaned on heavily for inspiration on the upcoming release of 28 Years Later.
Inspiring Art
The Last of Us is one of the most highly-awarded post-apocalyptic franchises ever made. It debuted in 2013 with the first game and was followed up in 2020 with The Last of Us Part II. In 2023, an HBO live-action adaptation was released, and that too claimed multiple awards.
Next month, the second season of that show will debut.
In a recent interview segment dubbed ‘Creator to Creator,’ Alex Garland and Neil Druckmann sit down with Sony to spend an hour discussing their respective work from the last two or three decades.
The interview dives straight in with Alex Garland praising The Last of Us, stressing that it’s better than 28 Days Later ever was:
Let me say this.
The Last of Us is better than 28 Days.
The thing about The Last of Us was, I was like, ‘Oh, this is so much more sophisticated’.
Here’s the full interview:
Garland explained that The Last of Us prompted him to ‘raise his game’ for 28 Years Later, which arrives a very long time after the 2007 release of 28 Weeks Later. The movie is set in the United Kingdom and portrays society long after a total collapse has taken place, caused by a monumental outbreak of the ‘Rage’ virus.
He then mentioned that he found The Last of Us ‘fascinating’ as both a gamer and a writer, and praised the pacing and flow of the games and their cinematic quality.
The similarities between The Last of Us and 28 Years Later are fairly obvious. For instance, in both The Last of Us and 28 Years Later, the infection that has decimated mankind isn’t your typical ‘raise the dead’ zombie outbreak, but an infection that corrupts the living. Also, the make-up and modelling of the infected are quite similar between both titles.
In 28 Years Later, the world has been left to rot, and that’s visible in the overgrown, ruined nature of the set pieces, which again is reminiscent of The Last of Us.
Let me know if you’re excited about the impending release of 28 Years Later in the comments or on the GPlayr forum.
For more GPlayr coverage, check out the news that GTA 5 Enhanced is the worst-rated Grand Theft Auto game on Steam