The dawn of HBO Max’s The Last of Us series is finally upon us, and with a pair of Rotten Tomatoes scores numbering 99 and 96 from critics and audiences respectively, it’s arrived about as loudly as it could.
Having been pegged as one of the greatest video game adaptations for the screen of all time, the show stars Pedro Pascal as Joel, a steely, traumatized smuggler who must journey across a monster-infested America to deliver 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to Colorado, where the young girl’s immunity to the rampant, zombie-like virus can hopefully be translated into a cure.
Adapting a game that’s mostly already a movie may make its aforementioned claim seem a little less glamorous, but a fantastic final product is still a fantastic final product, and the gaming world is all too happy with its success; in fact, one of the granddaddies of modern gaming has officially offered a thumbs-up for HBO’s descent into the franchise.
Reggie Fils-Aimé, who served as president of Nintendo of America until 2019, tweeted out his congratulations to showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin on their adaptation, while also adding that he hopes it “begins a trend.”
The trend is likely referring to Fils-Aimé’s hopes that more great video game adaptations for the screen will begin popping up. If so, he’s in for quite a bit of good news, according to one user.
Others were too hung up on Reggie’s Switch-worthy accompanying image to pay attention to much else.
In any case, hopefully, Fils-Aimé’s support of The Last of Us translates into good karma for the upcoming Super Mario Bros. Movie, a video game adaptation after his own heart.
The first of The Last of Us‘ nine episodes, meanwhile, is currently available to stream on HBO Max, with new episodes releasing every Sunday.