HBO took advantage of the enormous expectation generated around The Last of Us and, the previous week, confirmed that the second season will be a reality. Only two episodes were enough to convince the company that the story starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey has a great future on television. However, the showrunners, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, don’t limit their vision to just two seasons.
In an interview with ET, Craig Mazin acknowledged having conversations about multiple seasons beyond the first. Of course, everything indicates that, for the moment, there is only one agreement for the second. HBO wants to take it easy because The Last of Us is one of the most expensive series in its history. Therefore, before thinking about the further future, they first want to make sure that the production will maintain a steady pace of popularity.
“We’ve definitely talked about the next few seasons. I think everyone at HBO is excited to keep it going, we want to keep it going. So as long as the audience and the desire is there longer, we’re ready to go,” said Craig Mazin.
As you surely know, the first season of The Last of Us will be in charge of adapting the first PlayStation game. Therefore, it is intuited that the second will do the same with The Last of Us Part 2, which was released during 2020.
So… Why are more than two seasons necessary? Because The Last of Us Part 2 story is bigger in every way. Not only in duration, but also in depth.
Prior to the announcement of the second season, Craig Mazin noted that, given the opportunity to adapt Part 2, they would need more than one season. “It’s a great animal to take down, you know? It’s a much bigger and more complicated story. I think it’s a beautiful story. So Neil [Druckmann] and I are analyzing it, because it is more than one season. But, you know, we won’t get there until the audience sees it. [la primera temporada] and HBO give us good news.”
Fortunately, that good news came from the previous week. Consequently, Neil Druckman and Craig Mazin will get down to work to write the script for the next episodes of The Last of Us.
Projects are piling up for Neil Druckmann
Concept art of ‘Factions 2’
One of the big doubts that the community has, especially those that are well informed about the world of video games, is whether Neil Druckmann will have enough time to get involved in the second season of The Last of Us and, at the same time, in the multiple games that are in development at Naughty Dog.
One of them, in fact, is known -unofficially- as Factions 2. That is, the multiplayer mode of The Last of Us Part 2 that evolved into an independent experience. Its launch is scheduled for this year and is called to be the first great game as a PlayStation service in the current generation of consoles.
It is known, on the other hand, that Naughty Dog works on a completely new intellectual property. Neil Druckmann himself recently warned that, just like they did with Uncharted, they can close the story of The Last of Us at any time to jump into a different adventure.
«I know there are a lot of people who are wondering about The Last of Us Part 3, if it will happen or not. All I can say is that we at Naughty Dog are very, very privileged that our publisher is Sony, which means they fund our games, support us, and own us. They have supported us every step of the way to follow our passions. Just because something is successful, people think there’s pressure to make a sequel. But that is not the case.”
We’ll see if the creative is able to take on that workload over the next few years…