HBO
The Lord of the Rings inspired the terrifying scene we've seen in HBO's The Last of Us
Craig Mazin, who co-directs the series with Neil Druckmann, shared the surprising source of inspiration when thinking about what Episode 5 would look like.
Now that The Last of Us, the HBO series based on the PlayStation video game, has finished its first season, it's time to know more about its production while we wait for news about Season 2. And one of its directors, Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), has revealed something very interesting during an interview with Empire Magazine: the inspiration he took from one of the most acclaimed movies of all time, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
The Last of Us scene was inspired by Lord of the Rings
If we asked you to name the most intense and epic moment you experienced in the first season of the HBO series, which episode would come to mind? Probably one that would come to mind would be no other than episode five, specifically the scene where the horde of infected emerges from the hole in the ground and rushes after Kathleen's men, culminating in the appearance of the terrifying Bloater, the most dangerous version of the Cordyceps-induced transformations.
The moment from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring that inspired Mazin is the passage of Frodo, Sam, Gimli, Legolas and company through Khazad-dûm, better known as the realm of Moria. According to the director, the idea was to portray the infected in the darkest and most terrifying way possible, something that is perfectly appreciated in this scene from Peter Jackson's movie, where we can even draw a parallel between the invasion of the Bloater and the Balrog. When you see the source of inspiration, it's no wonder the series has turned out so well....
Source | Craig Mazin on Empire Magazine, vía CBR