HBOâs The Last of Us live-action series is currently shooting its second season. Based on the first looks weâve seen and the set photos that have been circulating online, the second season will likely cover the earliest sections of Ellieâs revenge tour in The Last of Us Part II. From the sound of it, HBO may be looking to expand the second game into not one, not even two, but possibly three seasons.
In an interview with Deadline, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin confirmed that the second season of the show will include seven episodes, one of which Mazin describes as âquite bigâ but not âfeature length.â This is two fewer episodes than season one, which covered the entirety of the first gameâs events in nine episodes. This number came after âcareful considerationâ from the two after the decision was made to tell Part IIâs story across multiple seasons.
âThe story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,â Mazin told Deadline. âWhen you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.â
Anyone whoâs played The Last of Us Part II knows what that âbreakpointâ likely is. If theyâre adapting the sequel into multiple seasons, it would probably make sense to end season 2 after Ellieâs three days in Seattle. This could mean that season 3 would focus entirely on Abby, the second protagonist of the game. But thatâs not all of Part II, as thereâs a third âchapterâ of that game that could possibly be expanded into a fourth season. That structure is mostly my speculation, but given that Druckmann and Mazin expect the show to end up a four-season series, itâs not out of the question.
âWe donât think that weâre going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because weâre taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too,â Mazin said. âWe feel like itâs almost assuredly going to be the case thatâas long as people keep watching and we can keep making more televisionâSeason 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4.â
However many seasons it goes, it sounds like HBOâs adaptation wonât be a 1:1 recreation of Part II, but Mazin told Deadline that while the individual seasons may be shorter moving forward, this is so they can spend more time telling The Last of Us Part IIâs story over the next few years, rather than trying to condense it all into one season.
âWe just want to put peopleâs minds at ease that the idea that this season coming up is a little bit shorter than the first one is not because weâre taking less time to tell the stories, itâs because we want to take more time,â Mazin said. âThe story that weâre telling is much bigger than the story of Season 1, thereâs just a lot more going on, itâs a lot harder to produce but we want every episode to feel like its own blockbuster to be honest with you.â
While they donât outright confirm a fourth season will happen, Mazin and Druckmann say they have the entire show mapped out up to the conclusion of Part II. So it sounds like theyâre fairly certain that is the plan, for now.
âOur process was, we sketched out multiple seasons, then we did a deep dive on Season 2,â Druckmann said. âTo echo what Craig is saying, there is no padding, everything that is in there is intentional. There is always a goal in mind that weâre heading towards, we are never meandering for the sake of meandering, itâs always to say something greater for these characters and the themes.â
The Last of Usâ second season is set to premiere on Max in 2025. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will reprise their roles as Joel and Ellie, with newcomers like Kaitlyn Dever as Abby filling out the cast. Jeffrey Wright has also joined the showâs cast as Isaac, having also played the character in The Last of Us Part II
