The Last Of Us creator teases more than just two seasons
Although there are only two games in The Last Of Us series (so far), co-creator Craig Mazin promises more from the TV show
Aux News Writers
The Last Of Us isn’t just a hit show, it’s a triumph in video game adaptation. It should be noted, though, that there are only two video games in The Last Of Us series to adapt. With the second season of the beloved post-apocalyptic HBO drama on the horizon, one might worry that the show will run out of road. But according to co-creator Craig Mazin, fans need not be concerned about this story’s life beyond its source material.
“Our plan is to do it not just for one more season,” Mazin said during a panel at NAB in Las Vegas (via Deadline). “We should be around for a while.”
Of course, in regards to the source material, Mazin and co-creator Neil Druckmann have previously stated that The Last Of Us Part II game would stretch beyond the second season. “[We] will not say how many,” Mazin told GQ in March. “But more than one [season] is factually correct.”
Mazin is understandably vague about what “a while” might mean—given how changeable the entertainment industry can be, it’s nearly impossible to predict how many seasons a show will get, even when it’s a bona fide hit. He did, however, provide an upper limit during a press day back in January (via Gizmodo). “[Assuming] we can keep going forward, the idea would be to do more than just one more season,” he said. “But this isn’t the kind of show that is going to be seven seasons.”
And although both creators have stressed the adaptation will be different from the game, Mazin doesn’t expect to tread too far off the beaten path. “I am not interested in going beyond the existing source material,” he explained at the press event. “As a viewer, I have no problem watching shows that just keep going and going and going. No problem. But as a writer, I don’t want to be in the position of spinning plates to just spool out season after season of stuff. To me, it’s important that things are purposeful, and if they’re purposeful, that means they have endings. That means everything you do is carefully selected and chosen, not just there to keep going.”
17 Comments
Given the way the 2nd game begins, I assume they’ll be focusing on the time period between the two games. I could be wrong. I’ll watch either way.
I think Druckmann is saying we have not seen the last of them.
the guy who isn’t quoted once?
“Every show I have cared for has either tanked in ratings or been cancelled. Every show…fucking except for you. So don’t tell me that I would be safer with just one more season because the truth is I would just be more scared.” – HBO
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that the Last of Us Part 2 game will be split into Seasons 2 & 3 of HBO’s series. And the big Season 2 cliffhanger will be TLOU2’s controversial surprise shocker.
That sounds unwatchable.Big twist S2E1 or else it is just dreck.
If the show is going to focus on the same characters as the game, for as long as the game does, it will need to introduce that new group of characters far more in advance. If you thought it was alienating in the game, just wait until a TV audience of millions gets their eyes on it. No way are they going to be able to bifurcate the narrative in the same way they did in the game.
I think you have to keep that fairly early on in season 2. A good shift between seasons 2 and 3 could be the change in perspective that happens in Part 2.
I can’t imagine them ending a season with that cliffhanger. That would probably cause a fair number of people to just not come back for the next season – better to put it at the start of season 3, so folks know that follow-up is coming right away.
Seasons of shows like this are further apart, too. We’re probably not going to see Season 3 until 2026, unless they film them simultaneously.
That surprise shocker happens at the end of what’s basically the tutorial of a 30+ hour game and drives the entire narrative. To have the be the end of season 2 would require them to have an entire season of the game’s flashbacks, which would be awful.There are a lot of flashbacks in the game, granted, but they are doled in a way that informs the emotional state of the characters in the present, after that “shocker.” If they were just all strung together sequentially to make up a season, without that context happening early, they’d be meaningless.
That’s basically a given – they’ve been saying that the second game’s adaptation to TV would take more than one season for a while. I’ve said before that I think they’ll abandon the structure of the flashbacks from the game, and instead expand them into a dual narrative for season 2 for Abby and Ellie that ends roughly where the flashbacks end. Season 3 would then start with the shocker cliffhanger, and go from there.
I play TLoU 2 again, after watching the series. I hadn’t played it again since it came out because, holy crap, it’s emotionally draining (a bit over long). As opposed the first game that I’ve replayed many times. It’s really good, and some distance of knowing what’s coming allowed me to appreciate some things I hadn’t the first time. I will say though, adapting this is going to be a million times harder than the straightforward narrative of the first game. The amount of characters, the flashbacks, the perspective changes. It’s a lot. Particularly in how so much of the impact of things is garnered from the player being an active participant rather than a passive viewer. Then there’s just the basic narrative structure of the perspective changes. I’m trying to avoid spoilers here, but the game goes very, very long stretches with the player playing different characters. When that perspective changes you’re back at the beginning of the game and you see how the previous character’s actions impact the current character. You know what’s coming, just seen through a different characters perspective. It’s going to be tough to translate that into episodic TV. Just the basic nature of TV production basically precludes the possibility that they would spend a whole season on one set of actors, then spend another season on a totally different set of actors, with minimal direct interaction between them. The show is going to have intersperse these disparate narratives episode to episode somehow, while maintaining the emotional stakes in each.
We all know what is going to happen: They are going to keep a certain character around and piss off the nerds.
They have to understand that there are a lot of people out there like me: Pedro Pascal is the big reason my household watches the show. Take that away and you may have less watchers.
How unsurprising that the only comment that bumbles into spoiling the plot (while everyone else shows just how easy it is to talk around it) is also the one that also doesn’t seem to understand that Druckmann’s bold choice was essential for the devastating power of the second storyline.
Well, it’s not surprising. Of course they would say something like that. They’re one of the few shows not getting the ax from HBDiscovery. They have to sound at least optimistic that they are worth the money not to be cancelled. How they do it is what will determine if it’s a show that can last beyond season 3. I do believe it will get at least 3 seasons worth. I don’t believe it’s going to get the Walking Dead treatment nor do I think it should last that long. I think realistically it will last as long as WestWorld did. 4 seasons. It’s unknown if the quality will go downhill or they will do something similar like The Walking Dead and veer off away from the game storyline and go their own way. I binged watched the first season finally. And it was a well made game adaptation. People could just watch season 1 then just play the second game or vice versa. I never played the second game, and I think I’ll just skip playing that game and let season 2 replace it.That being said, with the first game, the 1st season, and knowing everything about the second game, I’m not sure if I would want just 3-4 seasons of just endless sadgasms. Luckily there’s other games and shows to watch and play to counter that.
To all the game fans out there I FUCKIN TOLD YA!