"Seasons 1 and 2 of The Last Of Us to Receive American Sign Language Versions"

After the success of Max adding ASL to some of its biggest movies, the latest addition to receive an ASL edition is a first for one of its original shows. The Last of Us returns April 13, but starting March 31, deaf/hard of hearing fans can rewatch the entire first season with an ASL interpreter: CODA star, Daniel Durant.

As revealed by IndieWire, not only will Season 1 have an ASL version, but ASL for Season 2 will air day-and-date when it becomes available for everyone else. Durant and director Leila Hanaumi will be the performers for Season 2.

“We always rely on captions, but they’re always in English grammar structure, and having the concept of adding a deaf interpreter there just makes it a clearer message,” Durant told IndieWire via an interpreter. “It gives us expanded ideas and meanings, and then we as deaf people get to understand the meanings behind it, using our own language and seeing it on the screen. It makes it even more accessible to us and so much more special.”

Durant’s presentation during the program aims to be less distracting than previous techniques. He’ll be super-imposed in the bottom right corner, instead of a small boxed-in area of the screen. Last year, Max had an ASL version of Barbie with Hanaumi performing the entirety of the film. But are there signs for the scientific jargon used throughout the show? Hanaumi explains new signs are created all the time by deaf scientists.

“It’s just amazing this kind of access is capable now, because it aligns with deaf people in different work environments and fields. We have more deaf scientists now, and they are coming up with new ASL signs for scientific terms,” Hanaumi said. “We were able to use those signs that they as deaf people, scientific deaf people, have developed, so it was very cool to have this process and the progress of more ASL accessibility. It’s not just about the enjoyment, it’s very motivated by the fields as well.”

Season 1 made a major change to Sam, who Ellie bonded over with comic books in the game. In the show, he was played by deaf child star Keivonn Woodard. Durant will leave Woodward’s performance intact and only interpret Bella Ramsey’s dialog.