Matthew McConaughey has revealed that he was approached about starring in HBO’s The Last Of Us TV adaptation – but turned the role down.
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Premiering in 2023, HBO’s critically acclaimed adaptation of beloved gaming franchise The Last Of Us stars Pedro Pascal as gruff smuggler Joel and Bella Ramsey as his adopted daughter Ellie as they make their way across the apocalypse-ravaged United States. The first season retold the story of the original game, with the second taking inspiration from The Last Of Us Part 2.
In a new interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McConaughey revealed that The Last Of Us showrunner Craig Mazin brought the project to him while it was still early in development but he turned it down.
“I wasn’t really acting at that point. That was when I was doing more writing and looking at leadership roles. [Craig Mazin] was really excited. The Last of Us was really good but it wasn’t for me at the time. I don’t know what would’ve been for me…,” explained McConaughey, with successful TV shows usually taking up years of someone’s career. “Do I want that to be the case?”
Back in 2023, Mazin gave his side of the story. “I did talk to Matthew [about playing Joel]. I can’t say it was serious. It was more like, ‘Hey, here’s something we can talk about.’ He is an amazing actor and I’m sure it would’ve been great. But it would’ve been different, and I like the one that we made [with Pedro Pascal].”
The third season of The Last Of Us is set to launch next year, but it’s not known if any more will follow. Mazin previously said that four seasons “seemed like a good number”. After the end of season two, he claimed there was “no way to complete this narrative” with just one more season but HBO bosses have suggested that the story will need to be wrapped up with a third and final season.
Meanwhile game creator Neil Druckmann has said he would “totally jump” at making The Last Of Us Part Three if the story was strong enough. “It’s important to me that everything is high quality. I don’t just want to make a lot of it, I want to be very thoughtful about everything we make.” Last September, Druckmann teased “more” updates when “the time is right” and earlier this year, he got fans’ hopes up by talking about the “road ahead” for the franchise but so far, nothing has been announced.
In other news, Pokémon fans are convinced that more classic games are coming to the Nintendo Switch later this year.
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