The co-creators of The Last of Us TV series have revealed that season 2 will be shorter than the first.
However, they also hint that there could be many more seasons to come, as the plot of the second game is too big to fit into just one or even two series.
HBO's adaptation of The Last of Us is simply superb. Along with Fallout on Prime Video, the show stands as a beacon of how video games can make great TV. And, the great news is that production on season 2 is well underway.
However, there's bad news too. An interview with the show's creators and executive producers, Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, has revealed something no fan really wants to hear.
Deadline spoke to the duo about the new season and discovered that it will be shorter than the first – seven episodes in comparison with the nine of season 1.
"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," said Mazin to the entertainment site.
"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."
That reveals two things – the series will be truncated, but also that we're very likely to get at least one more season after. Not all of The Last of Us Part II will be told in the next run.
In fact, it might even take further seasons still. The producers explained that they plan to feature side stories in episodes, maybe even all-new world-building tales that didn't appear in the game.
"We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons because we’re taking our time to go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in season 1 too," Mazin continued.
What neither of the co-creators discussed was whether The Last of Us season 2 will follow the plot of the game precisely – in particular the first act (which we'll refrain from mentioning here, in case you haven't played it).
There are hints though that we can expect a similar outcome.
"It’s a continuation of love from the first season, and this is just the dark side of that coin, the pursuit of justice at any cost for the ones you love and the exploration of that," teased Druckmann.
You can watch the entire first season of The Last of Us on Max in the US and Sky Q, Sky Glass, Sky Stream and Now in the UK.
The latter is available across multiple Smart TVs, games consoles and streaming devices.
