The Last Of Us Was Almost An Animated TV Show

thegamer.com:

Actor Jeffrey Pierce, who voiced Joel's brother Tommy in both Last of Us games, has revealed that at one point in the past, Naughty Dog considered adapting its franchise as a "cinematic animated series."

Speaking with The Direct recently, Jeffrey Pierce revealed that The Last of Us has come a long way before being adapted as a live-action TV show smash hit at HBO. In the actor's words, the franchise just as well could've been adapted as a full-fledged movie, or even as an animated TV series akin to Dragon Age: Absolution, Dota: Dragon's Blood, or Arcane.

Related: It Doesn't Matter If Joel's Panic Attacks In The Last Of Us Are Canon

"There have been a couple of different iterations over time. There was a movie at one point. There was a motion-capture cinematic animated series at one point," Pierce said. "Both of those are things that I thought, 'I got a pretty good shot at being involved to some degree."

As it turns out, the actor had his doubts about being cast in The Last of Us live-action adaptation, but was counting on playing Tommy again if the creators would choose to stick with the animated version. In the end, fans got what they got, and Pierce still managed to appear on-screen as the supporting character Perry from Kansas City. Although his character is unlikely to return in future episodes.

Naturally, it is pretty hard now to imagine The Last of Us as something other than the final result, in part due to the original's gripping and grounded setting, as well as a human drama at its very core. Despite the show itself not caring too much for realism, it still feels like a natural choice for delivering some of the strongest performances on television right now.

During the same interview, Jeffrey Pierce also