Production designer John Paino and HBO’s The Last of Us expand on the game’s iconic villain.
Editor’s note: spoilers for The Last of Us episode 8 to follow.
If you’ve played the original PlayStation game The Last of Us, then you know about David.
David is the charismatic leader of a faction that appears in the winter chapter while the player is in Ellie’s point of view—and he’s scary. He takes a liking to Ellie, capturing her and trying to convince her to join his group. And it’s revealed he has resorted to cannibalism to keep his flock alive.
In the game, not much is known about David, other than he’s creepy and a cannibal, but you can assume some things based on the environment. For example, players can catch a glimpse of a banner in the lodge during his boss fight (if you’re paying enough attention during this terrifying game play). It reads: “When we are in need he shall provide!”
This banner sparked fan theories for years about David as an overtly religious figure and the perhaps Christian undertones to this faction.
In the show, David is played by Scott Shepherd, and he’s more clearly painted as a preacher (formerly a teacher of children, which is doubly horrible considering his proclivities). His group is also more obviously a cult in his manipulative grasp. Just as in previous episodes, writers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann are interested in exploring all the shades of the show’s villains, and the character development is stellar.
The lessons here are that you don’t have to make your villains one-dimensional, even if you don’t have time to develop them as fully as you want to. Put something in their environment or behavior that at least hints at more, and let the audience fill in the rest. They can be a quiet, conniving man surrounded by religious imagery and suspicious meat, and be just as terrifying as a loud, bloodthirsty killer.
All that being said, how is David’s character reflected in the production design? We chatted with John Paino, the show’s production designer, about the episode.
NFS: David is such a horrifying character, and I’m wondering if you did anything in your set designs to develop him further.
Paino: You’re talking about the cannibal town. We built the steakhouse, which is the meeting place. There was a nod by me to make it somewhat church-like in its symmetry, and where we put his podium. And [in] the banner there is a subtle—we try to make it feel a little bit like a church, a little bit.
So, there’s things like that. But again, too, you walk a fine line between what’s in the game, what a steakhouse looks like, and being subtle with bringing that in, I think, and so that’s it.
NFS: Yeah.
Paino: We do try to bring that in. I also think the way it’s shot and the framing of it certainly helps too.
NFS: It’s always been one thing that I’m curious about from the game.
Paino: I mean, we built the steakhouse and the vat in the kitchen and all of that so that we could control it and make it a bit more ominous and Shining-like—and just, yeah, weird.
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