"The crippled is the vision," accumulation decorator John Paino told E! News, referring to the 2013 PlayStation title that HBO's The Last of Us is adapted from. "The conception creation for the crippled ever looked cinematic. It had a consciousness of spot and lighting and realism to it."

But, arsenic movie-like arsenic it looked, it was inactive a game. The occupation of Paino, acceptable decorator Paul Healy and hundreds of different craftspeople was to physique tangible versions of the game's dueling worlds: The not-so-distant-but-subtly-retro 2003, and the frozen-in-time mentation of that aforesaid year, 2 decades aft beingness arsenic radical knew it imploded.

"The biggest situation was conscionable moving successful a real-life situation," Paino explained. "We're doing a play portion connected apical of a desiccated apocalyptic piece, that is besides a play astir the people. So determination were these multi-layers."

Production kicked disconnected successful Calgary successful July 2021, and the Canadian metropolis "worked for definite things," helium said, but "I don't deliberation determination was ever a determination that didn't get immoderate emotion from the creation section oregon rebuilding. Also, everything has been neglected for 20 years," truthful adjacent if an area had the close look for filming, they'd person to alteration thing excessively recognizably modern, specified arsenic computerized parking meters.

When Paino archetypal met with producers, he showed them collages that "for me, encapsulated the game," helium said. One acceptable of images resonated successful particular: Broken edifice chairs in a Hong Kong alley that radical had made usable again with makeshift fixes, propping them up with postulation cones or rigging a portion of wood successful spot of a missing leg.

After 20 years of not having anything, the question was, "How bash radical survive?" Paino thought. "How bash radical marque do? I would amusement that representation to springiness them the thought of the desiccation and the ingenuity—that consciousness of hopelessness that's besides balanced with hopefulness."

Series co-creator Craig Mazin thought those images were "the cat's pajamas," Paino said, and they were disconnected to the races.

Paino credited the ocular effects team, including supervisor Alex Wang, for those stunningly realistic-looking cityscapes that ram location the grade of the devastation. But everything the actors encountered up adjacent really existed. 

"Where they're coming retired of the QZ, everything astir them is built, that's each sculpted," helium said. "They're walking done that and past we cookware out, and that is created successful the computer. But fundamentally our regularisation of thumb was to spell 20 feet up successful the aerial with our dressing and past formal everything astir them. They're not conscionable walking done stages of greenish screen, ever."

For a amusement chiefly acceptable successful a satellite that was bombed to hellhole to effort to contain the spread of an incurable cordyceps plague that turns the infected into clickers—monsters with heads that look similar blooming onions—the colour palette of The Last of Us is remarkably not dour.

The Boston quarantine portion is awash successful reddish ceramic and splashes of bluish and yellow, portion extracurricular the QZ, Mother Nature has been engaged reclaiming what's hers, leaving the buildings overgrown with vines (all hand-sculpted) and different bright-green foliage.

"I ne'er wanted it to consciousness similar a Dutch painting, wherever everything was brown," Paino quipped.

And for Ellie, who's ne'er been retired of the QZ until she sets disconnected with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv), everything's a small brighter for her since she's seeing the satellite with caller eyes, helium explained. Then you person the creepily integrated clickers adding pops of color, and even "benign fungus" has go portion of the scenery, turning some walls "leathery and plant-like." 

Painstakingly detailed white card models were besides "super-helpful," the accumulation decorator noted. (That's right, this full satellite exists successful miniature, too.)

"We had an unthinkable exemplary maker," Paino shared. "My favorite was the elephantine exemplary for the cul-de-sac [in occurrence five, "Endure and Survive"] wherever the clickers travel retired of the ground. That full sequence, truthful overmuch stunt coordination."

Movement choreographer Terry Notary held a bootcamp to get the extras acceptable to realistically represent a hoard of infected.

The municipality of Canmore stood successful for Jackson, Wyo., wherever Joel finds his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) surviving a domesticated, well-appointed beingness (Electricity! Movie night!) successful a walled-off communal village.

"We enactment successful the partition and rebuilt a batch of the facades," Paino noted—though his pridefulness and joyousness from that occurrence was the paddock they built successful the mediate of a parking lot.

"That was conscionable truthful overmuch amusive to person a paddock!" helium said. "We had a fewer cows and immoderate sheep, we had horses. The acceptable decorating section was fabulous."

Paino's favourite set was the promenade wherever Ellie and her champion person Riley (Storm Reid) person what starts disconnected arsenic a stellar nighttime successful occurrence seven, "Left Behind," earlier the reminder that nowhere is safe rears its literal disfigured head.

The Northland Village Mall successful Calgary "was destined to be," the decorator said. "It was stripped of everything, it was going to beryllium torn down, so we lucked retired successful uncovering it. All the facades successful it were rebuilt. All the signage, the dreck, the vines, the merry-go-round was brought in."

The acceptable decorators tracked down lingerie that would person been successful a Victoria's Secret model successful 2003, costumes for the Halloween store, the decidedly smaller selection of American Girl dolls disposable astatine the name-brand boutique successful those days, etc.

Paino noted that each the marque names—from the promenade storefronts to an abandoned Arby's successful Kansas City (where Matchstick Men and Underworld are everlastingly connected the theatre marquee) to a "we instrumentality Mastercard" motion connected the doorway of a edifice wherever the vino glasses connected the still-set tables are afloat of moss—were specific to the show, arsenic the video crippled didn't see immoderate trademarked products.

The accumulation leased the rodeo-themed carousel that Ellie and Riley instrumentality a crook connected from the Spruce Meadows amusement analyzable successful Calgary, shipping it successful pieces and reassembling it astatine Northland Village.  

They added reflective panels to the halfway of the thrust to adhd to the surreality of the experience.

As for Raja's Arcade (which comes from the game), Paino said, "being a kid of the '70s, I spent a batch of clip successful a promenade arcade, truthful that was easy."

"It was truthful overmuch amusive to enactment up each the neon," helium continued, and "we were capable to get a carpet that was close from the '70s, that large Zippy outer pattern." They besides brought successful each the games, including classical titles similar Tetris, Frogger and Mortal Combat.

"You tin rent immoderate of those, but we built a batch of them," helium said, and they really worked. But the cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitors that games from 20 years agone had came out blurry connected camera, truthful they replaced them with level LED screens in bid to seizure the enactment clearly. 

"That was a batch of fun," helium reflected. "I loved that set."

A adjacent second-favorite acceptable for Paino was the municipality wherever Bill (Nick Offerman) is satisfactorily surviving unsocial until Frank (Murray Bartlett) shows up successful 2007 and changes everything. With Frank conscionable referenced successful the game, their almighty emotion story written for the amusement served up a antithetic benignant of devastation arsenic the crippled takes a detour from Joel and Ellie's journey.

They had "such a abbreviated window" to set the scene, from bringing successful the greenery to sculpting the Civil War monument, Paino said. "I deliberation we were moving up until precocious astatine nighttime the time earlier it shot."

"Bill's location was much his mom's, idiosyncratic who was affluent and keeping it astir similar a museum," Paino explained the imaginativeness down the old-lady decor erstwhile the gruff survivalist is archetypal introduced.

Frank got determination and fundamentally said to himself, "'Okay, well, what bash I do?'" Paino mused. "'I spell to Target and get paints.'"

While the picturesque hamlet whitethorn person been cleared of radical beauteous quickly, there's inactive a Home Depot. "Go to Michael's, paint, bent the pictures, adhd immoderate beingness and flowers,'" Paino continued. "That was a bully spot of world-building."

By the end, aft 16 years together, Frank's creation is each implicit the walls of what has go their house, and we are a weeping mess.

A fewer of Sam's drawings successful occurrence 5 were courtesy of actor Keivonn Montreal Woodard, who plays the ill-fated youngster, but wide the creation section cranked them retired utilizing the crippled arsenic their guide.

Though the tragic ending remains the same, the touching country wherever large member Henry (Lamar Johnson) applies a small overgarment to Sam's face, superhero-style, to cheer him up was caller to their story.

Mazin whitethorn person referred to occurrence 8 ("When We Are successful Need") arsenic "our acold episode," but determination were much than a fewer acold episodes for the unit shooting astatine Waterton Lakes National Park. With fewer residents astatine the edifice country during the winter, "there's thing there," said Paino, "and there's, like, 9 feet of snow."

When they were scouting in Waterton, wherever Ellie's run-in with David's (Scott Shepherd) cannibal cult is set, "we went up to a elevation and we each got blown off," recalled Paino, who was connected determination for 16 months. "No effects required to nonstop america connected our butts, flying. But it's an unbelievable place."

Just similar the sheep and horses successful the paddock, the giraffes that look to beryllium grazing successful an aged playing tract successful the season finale, "Look for the Light," were real—but successful their case, the accumulation had to spell to them.

"That acceptable portion was beautifully executed," Paino said. Joel and Ellie are "walking done a operation site, which was a determination successful downtown Calgary that we did immoderate enactment to. They're going up the staircase—that was a acceptable built connected a stage. The giraffes' enclosure [at the zoo] had a balcony wherever the keepers would provender them. Over a play of a period and a half, possibly a spot longer, we dilatory introduced pieces of scenery and greenish surface successful there, so it would lucifer that precise iconic country of them making their mode up to the apical of the desiccated gathering and seeing [Colorado] laid out."

"That was, I don't know, 4 minutes of the episode," Paino said wryly. "But it was truly beautiful."

Grand standard aside, the amusement was "also reasonably intimately shot," Paino noted. "It is simply a communicative astir the people. We don't bash a lot of large 'there's the world!'"

Ultimately, helium explained, "we didn't privation to bash catastrophe porn." And yet they wanted it to resonate, specified arsenic erstwhile Ellie is rifling done a drawer successful an abandoned location and finds needle and thread, that "this was someone's house, this was someone's bar."

"Sometimes it was scripted, and sometimes it wasn't," Paino said of the little details that marque the satellite of The Last of Us truthful haunting. "We ever tried to play with that bittersweet irony."

And they did negociate to sneak successful a mold-splotched "Back successful 5 minutes" motion that idiosyncratic innocently hung up 20 years ago. 

"If I ever person a screensaver," Paino said, "I deliberation it'll beryllium that."