HBO's The Last Of Us isn't as violent as the games, says showrunner

The world of The Last Of Us is one of violence and misery. Its inhabitants are ripped apart, bludgeoned, beaten, tortured, shot, and completely destroyed - by human and monster alike.

The Naughty Dog-developed video games are packed with moments of shocking violence, of course, mostly perpetrated by the player as they use whatever unpleasant weapon they've picked up to tear through crowds of enemies. However, it turns out the upcoming HBO series won't be quite as violent.

According to Naughty Dog co-president and showrunner Neil Druckmann, it was important to remove all non-essential violence from the story so that the more gruesome moments - when they do appear - genuinely shock.

Speaking to SFX Magazine, Druckmann explained that the consistent levels of violence in the game were required. "We need a certain amount of action, or violence, that we could use for mechanics so you could connect with Joel and get into a flow state," he said. It's also just fun to smash in an enemy's head with a brick, let's be honest.

But TV is a different medium. We're watching Joel, not playing as him, and having a 60-minute episode dedicated to watching him sneak around and slowly slit the throats of a dozen or so survivors would be pretty boring.

Druckmann added: "One of the things that I loved hearing from [co-creator Craig Mazin] and HBO very early on was, ‘Let’s take out all the violence except for the very essential.’ That allowed the violence to have even more impact than in the game, because when you hold on showing the threat and you’re seeing people’s reaction to a threat, that makes it scarier.

"And when we do reveal the infected and the Clickers, you get to see what brought down humanity and why everyone is so scared."

The Last Of Us premieres 15 January.