9 video games that need to be adapted for TV

With the The Last Of Us premiering Sunday on HBO, here are more beloved games that deserve the prestige-television treatment

By Sam Barsanti, William Hughes | January 10, 2023 | 3:00pm

TV Features Video Games

9 video games that need to be adapted for TV

Pedro Pascal in The Last Of Us Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO

Although TV shows based on video games have become more common in recent years—the last 12 months have seen adaptations of Halo, Cyberpunk, League Of Legends, Resident Evil, and more on the small screen—they’re still typically viewed as a rarity in comparison to the more common move from games to film. Gaming’s credibility in Network Land is likely to get a strong boost in a couple of days, though, when HBO deploys The Last Of Us, Craig Mazin’s pricey adaptation of Naughty Dog’s prestigious interactive zombie epic of the same name.

Because while The Last Of Us isn’t necessarily groundbreaking in terms of adapting a popular video game to TV, it is a major step forward in networks treating the end product like more than a shoddily produced afterthought. And that embrace by HBO opens the door for many of gaming’s other biggest franchises to get a similar treatment.

So we have to ask: Which beloved games could become TV’s next big things?

Among Us

Among Us - Launch Trailer - Nintendo Switch

Sure, you could adapt the massively popular secret space murderer game Among Us as a sort of prestige drama, pitting a dwindling crew of survivors against the Thing-esque alien mimicking their former friends. It’d be tense, if a bit generic—which is actually a pretty good descriptor for Among Us games in the first place.But Among Us could also make one hell of a game show, for the same reasons it makes for a great game on phones and consoles: That same sense of tension, confusion, and fear that rapidly builds as you realize more and more of your friends have vanished. Bring in a “crew” of 12 contestants, build a massive spaceship for them to run around in, give the “alien” a way to “murder” their victims, and you’ve basically cooked up a recipe for the same mixture of paranoia, accusations, and desperate deductive work that makes Among Us such a treat. All you really need to do is throw some money at it, and it’s an easy summer unscripted hit. [William Hughes]

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