No./18
Inside an apocalyptic masterpiece
The team behind THE LAST OF US’ stand-out third episode describe its journey to the small screen
Top to bottom: Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett); Armed and dangerous; Bartlett’s casting was “the cherry on the cake” for Offerman; Director Peter Hoar (centre) on set.
Illustration: Russell Moorcroft
IT’S ALREADY BEING hailed as one of the best episodes of television in years. ‘Long, Long Time’, the third episode of zombie video-game adaptation The Last Of Us, stunned viewers by moving away from the main Joel-and-Ellie storyline (led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey) to tell the story of Nick Offerman’s Bill and Murray Bartlett’s Frank in an unusually romantic, largely standalone subplot. Here, the people behind the episode explain to Empire how they did it.