Warning: Mild spoilers for The Last of Us Part 1 and The Last of Us season 1!
The Last of Us showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann say it’s go big or go home when it comes to adapting The Last of Us Part 2 for the small screen.
“We are going big. I can’t promise you an exact number of seasons, but I will say that sometimes people think – oh, it’s funny. Some people say they rushed season 1 and now some people are saying, oh, they’re just dragging out and filling,” Mazin tells GamesRadar+. “You know, but we don’t really do that. We did season 1 the way we thought was correct and we’re doing season 2 and season 3 and perhaps the season 4 the way that we think is correct. And we don’t just do what’s there. “
It made perfect sense to stretch the first game over just one nine-episode season, especially given the length of the game itself. The Last of Us Part 1 takes around 15 hours of gameplay to finish the main story, but around 25 hours to hit 100% completion. The story is pretty succinct, with the player playing mainly as Joel but alternating for brief sections as Ellie and Sarah, Joel’s deceased daughter. The juxtaposition between the two helps flesh out Joel’s relationship with and love for Ellie (and makes us sob). Though in season 1, we only meet Sarah for one episode before her tragic death.
Continues Mazin: “We have opportunities to do more, but, it’s the same thing we say to HBO, they ask us how many episodes will this season be? And we say, hang tight, we’ll let you know because it’s just what feels correct. Where should this end? How should the next one function? But we are taking our time as best we can.”
The show should absolutely take its time with telling the story of The Last of Us Part 2, given how dense the material is. For context, The Last of Us Part 2 takes around 22-26 hours to finish the main story…but up to 42 hours to hit 100% completion. In this game, there is a five-year time jump, a slew of new characters, and the player alternates between Ellie and Abby, who is more or less the secondary protagonist/antihero of the game. A lot happens – and packing this into a single seven-episode season wouldn’t be doing the story justice.
“We try not to have any outside pressure. And this is where HBO is really great ’cause HBO doesn’t come to us like, okay, we need this many episodes and this many seasons and this many hours of TV. They always come to us and say, make the best choices for this story and we’ll support it as much as we can,” Druckmann adds.
“And for this season it happened to be seven episodes. We couldn’t tell you if we get to do this again, how many, exactly how many episodes we would do next season. But we have a destination in mind. And we know some of the stops along the way that we must make to get to that destination. And then the fun part is when we develop the season, is finding those diversions and those opportunities to really expand upon those stops.”
The Last of Us season 2 is set to hit Max on Sunday, April 13. For more, check out our list of the best Max shows and the best Max movies to watch right now.
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