‘The Last of Us’ Production Designer Explains Why They Wanted to Avoid Using Green Screens

HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ brings the beloved video games, following survivors Joel and Ellie in a post-apocalyptic world, to life.

The Last of Us is a poignant story about an unlikely friendship between two vastly different people who must both survive in a world that is drastically different from the one they used to live in. With seven episodes already released since its January 15 premiere, the series adaptation of the popular survival horror game, The Last of Us, has proven to be an instant hit thus far. Of course, bringing the video game realm to life on screen would not be possible without the combined efforts of the cast, crew, and production designers who worked so hard to conceptualize and bring The Last of Us—which has been loved by many for almost a decade now—to life. In an interview with ScreenRant, the show’s production designer, John Paino, revealed some Easter eggs as well as the artistic process of bringing together his team’s creative ideas into HBO’s post-apocalyptic series.

Paino—who has also worked on Sharp Objects, Dallas Buyers Club, and The Morning Show—shared why the color element is crucial to the show and that they had to make sure that viewers would get a feel for how the infection altered things for the worse when the world in The Last of Us abruptly changed in 2003. He said:

“There are things that we need to do that the game doesn’t need to do. Like when we get into the thick of the disaster, and we’re outside of the warm colors and the electricity of life before the infection, if we don’t add color, if we don’t add texture and things, when we desiccate everything, when we make everything look like that, it’s just all going to be black. So we want to make sure there’s some color of before and also maybe it’s a vaguely infected plant, fluorescent light, just to throw you off.”

The production designer didn’t want to rely on the green screen to ensure that the fictional world in The Last of Us would appear like a real, tragic world. He told ScreenRant: “In the game, they just make paths for the characters, and sure, you can go off and get a first aid kit and stuff. But we are making whole environments because the actors aren’t robots, they are not just going to walk,” he continued. “And the camera wants to move. So it’s taking the raw material of the game and references, and then we’ve got to make this in the real world,” he explained. “Because we don’t want to—and Craig does not want to do this—we do not want to just have people walking through a green screen.”

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Paino also confirmed that they incorporated some Easter eggs from the game into the show, which are “mostly props,” including Joe’s (Pedro Pascal) watch and gun, Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) switchblade, and the Fireflies logos. On his favorite prop created by his team’s prop masters, the production designer added: “But I think my favorite was they did such a good job with her knapsack, getting all the little things, the little dolls and things and the little emoji-like creatures that hung on it. They did a great job with that.”

A mourning survivor, Joel must smuggle the 14-year-old Ellie out of a quarantine zone due to the possibility that she could be humanity’s last hope. Though their unlikely tandem shows a distinct difference between the two, Joel and Ellie’s bond has strengthened throughout the series through various moments of happiness and danger and relying on each other for survival on their cross-country journey.

With only two more episodes remaining, the season finale of The Last of Us will air on Sunday, March 12. Watch the teaser for the next episode down below: