Bringing the Last of Us to Life: The Challenges of the HBO Adaptation

It's been 10 years since the release of the iconic game The Last of Us, and now HBO is bringing it to life with an adaptation. In the second episode, viewers were introduced to one of the game's most terrifying enemies, the clickers. Prosthetics master Barry Gower and his team had to bring these creatures from concept art to reality.

Gower had a lot of problems when it came time to transfer the design of these monsters from the game space to real life. His first step was to recreate Neil Druckmann's sketches while updating them for a more tangible on-screen experience. He needed to make sure that each clicker looked as creepy and menacing as it did in the game and, at the same time, make sure that they could behave appropriately without much restriction or bulky props during filming. This took weeks of trial and error before finally finding a process that was both safe and aesthetically pleasing for the viewers at home watching the events of the second episode.

To achieve this look, Gower used prosthetic makeup that was hand sculpted onto each actor who portrayed the Clicker character on the set. Hours were spent perfecting each individual mask so that no seams or wrinkles were visible when applied directly to the actors' faces. Any minor imperfections had to be carefully blended so that after filming, all that was left was an accurate image--truthful enough to give viewers a chill at home, as their video-game counterparts had done years before.

In addition, safety protocols had to be taken seriously, as some scenes could be dangerous because of the use of such elaborate masks. All precautions were taken even before shooting the action sequences to avoid possible harm to actors wearing heavy facial prostheses during stunts or rehearsals choreographing fights between multiple characters on set at the same time!

Overall, creating realistic Clickers proved to be a daunting task, but ultimately bore fruit thanks to Gower's hard work and dedication in all phases of production, right up until episode two aired in millions of homes around the world last Sunday night! New episodes will air every week until the series finale at the end of this summer season. Fans will undoubtedly see more stunningly detailed creatures based on the original material come to life again on TV screens in the near future.