HBO’s The Last of Us Season 2 will have a shorter episode count as showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann prepare for a “significantly larger” potential Season 3.
Information on the future of the television show adaptation comes from an interview with Deadline, which reveals that The Last of Us Season 2 will tell its story over the course of only seven episodes. That’s two episodes shorter than Season 1, but Mazin says it comes as a result of trying to do justice to the story, which adapts the events of the Naughty Dog-developed video game, The Last of Us Part II.
“The 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,” Mazin said. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”
The Last of Us series team has teased for a while that an adaptation of The Last of Us Part 2 could result in more than one season of television. Mazin says now that, should the show get the renewal green light from HBO, they would likely need a larger Season 3 – and potentially a Season 4 – to paint the full picture.
“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because we’re taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too,” he added. “We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4.”
Mazin continued: “One thing is absolutely for sure, I don’t see how we could tell the story that remains after Season 2 is complete in one more season.”
The showrunner clarified that The Last of Us Season 2 is getting just as much love and attention as Season 1 did. He added that it’s shorter “not because we’re taking less time to tell the stories, it’s because we want to take more time.”
“The story that we’re telling is much bigger than the story of Season 1, there’s just a lot more going on,” Mazin said. “It’s a lot harder to produce but we want every episode to feel like its own blockbuster to be honest with you.”
The Last of Us Season 2 is set to premiere sometime in 2025. For more, you can learn more about Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Young Mazino as Jesse, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, and more of the cast confirmed to appear in The Last of Us Season 2. A few first-look photos of the next batch of episodes from HBO can be seen here.
You can also read our 9/10 review of Season 1, where we said, “HBO's The Last of Us is a stunning adaptation that should thrill newcomers and enrich those already familiar with Joel and Ellie's journey alike.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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