The second season of HBO’s The Last of Us will not fully cover the video game The Last of Us Part 2, its creators have revealed.
Speaking with GQ , co-creators Neil Druckman (who directed the video game) and Craig Mazin discussed their plans for the show’s second season following Sunday’s finale episode of the wildly successful HBO adaptation.
When asked if the second season would cover the entire run of the second game, Mazin said, “No. No way.” Druckmann added, “It’s more than one season,” seemingly confirming their intention to create a season 3 of the show.
When asked how many seasons the second game’s content is planned to be narrated, the pair did not confirm. “You rightly noted that we won’t say how many. But more than one thing is certain,” Mazin said.
Episode 9 Preview | The Last of Us | HBO Max
Earlier in the interview, the pair hinted at how they’re going to adapt The Last of Us Part 2’s more complex plot structure, which relies on multiple angles and angle shifts.
Mazin said that, like the first season, some elements will be identical to the game, while others will be modified.
“I think we know what we’re doing in this case,” he said. “I’m not saying this sarcastically, I’m saying it with hope. There will be things that will be different and there will be things that will be the same.
“There are things that will be supplemented and enriched. There are some things that will be reversed. Our goal remains the same as the first season, which is to deliver a show that makes fans happy.
“We have an incredible cast. This is not an easy task. But, God, that was the first season. You can’t make everyone happy. But we made a lot of people happy, and it’s our intention to do it again.”
Druckman added in Season 2, “I think the process is easier. There is more trust, more shorthand, I know that I work with my friend, that even if we have very strong disagreements, it is always easy. I’ve been in so many situations where you disagree with someone, it feels like life or death. The process here is really a joy.”
The pair also addressed the mixed reaction to some of the plot elements of the video game The Last of Us Part 2, telling GQ that they were happy about the strong response to their material.
Druckmann said, “I think to go back to (Todd Phillips’) Craig quote earlier, which is like… I don’t care. How they react is completely out of our control. So how do you make the best version of this story for a TV show? This is a problem we struggle with every day.”
Mazin added: “To the extent that storylines make people angry, confused, frustrated or angry. Well, I guess that’s better than 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 that we’re very proud of and it touched a lot of people. It’s one of the lowest rated shows on IMDb for one reason – a lot of people came and gave it a 1/10. Not 5/10. one.
“The average score for this episode is a 10. And the average is an 8 or something. And that’s because there are incredibly strong opinions, one way or another. But I’d rather have a show that lives on 10 and 1 than a show that lives on 5.”