With the finale of HBO’s The Last of Us airing over the weekend, fans will now undoubtably turn their attention to what’s next, with a second season already confirmed to be in the works.
While the first season covered the entire story of Part 1, it seems as though that won’t be the case for Part 2, making a third season all but certain.
In an interview with GQ, co-creators Neil Druckmann (Director of the first game) and Craig Mazin were asked if season two would cover the entirety of The Last of us Part 2. “No. no way.” Mazin said. “It’s more than one season” Druckmann added. The pair would not confirm how many seasons the second game would take place across.
“You have noted correctly that we will not say how many. But more than one is factually correct.” Mazin said.
The series’ co-creator has already suggested that Part 2 may take place across multiple seasons. Speaking with IGN, Mazin said that “It’s a big animal to take apart”, and described it as “more than a season’s worth of television for sure.”
Earlier in the GQ interview, the pair were asked about adapting Part 2, which relies a lot more on multiple perspectives and perspective shifts. Mazin explains that the approach will be similar to the first season where some things will change, while others will be near identical to the source material.
“I think we know what we’re doing on this one.” Mazin said. “I’m not saying that in snarky way, I’m saying that in a hopeful way.”
“here are going to be things that are going to be different, and there are things that are going to be identical. There are things that are going to be added and enriched. There are some things that are going to be flipped.”
“Our goal remains exactly what it was for the first season, which is to deliver a show that makes fans happy. We’ve got an incredible returning cast. It’s a daunting task. But Jesus, so was the first season. You can’t make everyone happy. But we’ve made a lot of people happy and that’s our intention to do it again.”
Druckmann and Mazin also addressed some of the negative reaction to the direction that Part 2’s story takes.
“I guess, to go back to the earlier [Todd Phillips] quote from Craig, which is like… I don’t care.” Druckmann said. “How they react is how they react, that is completely outside of our control. So how do we make the best TV show version of that story? That’s the problem that we wrestle with every day.”
Mazin added: “To the extent that the storylines move people to rage, confusion, or disappointment or anger. Well that, I suppose, is preferable to the worst possible outcome, which is indifference.”
“There’s been a lot written about the third episode of this season, and it’s an episode we’re very proud of, and it moved a lot of people.” Mazin continued. “It’s one of the lower-rated shows on IMDb for one reason – a lot of people came on and gave it a 1/10. Not 5/10. One. The median score on that episode is 10. And the mean is an 8 or something. And that’s because there are incredibly strong opinions one way or the other.”
“But I would much rather have a show that lives off of 10s and 1s, than a show that lives off of 5s.”