The Last of Us show on HBO has been a huge proponent of the recent resurgence video game properties in film and television, with the series garnering widespread critical and audience acclaim; not only has the show been lauded for its acting performances, writing, score and production design, but it’s also been nominated for numerous awards, including 24 Primetime Emmy Awards. With The Last of Us pulling such praise and numbers (the show pulled an average of 30 million viewers per episode), it’s probably no surprise that the show has already been renewed for another season, but how many more seasons will there be beyond that?
According to showrunner Craig Mazin the exact length of The Last of Us hasn’t been finalized, but he thinks that four seasons seems like the sweet spot.
You never know. It can end up being three or five,” Mazin said in an interview with Hollywood Reporter. “But four seems like a good number. Some seasons, because of the story we’re telling, will need fewer episodes and some will need more.”
Mazin continued, ““Some seasons, because of the story we’re telling, will need fewer episodes and some will need more,” he added. “The best news is the audience wants more. We will not indulge a desire for more simply to make them happier when they hear how many episodes are announced. And if they don’t like how many episodes are in a season because they want more, well, OK. But when all is said and done, I think the wisdom of how we lay it out will hopefully be clear.”
Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller and Bella Ramsey as Ellie/HBO
The Last of Us series, which of course, is based on the 2013 game of the same name from developer Naughty Dog, closely followed the events of the first game in the show’s first season. Because of the nature of the second game, which features a divergent narrative which follows the exploits of two different characters, it might make sense that subsequent seasons of the show might be split into more than one season to follow both characters in detailed fashion.
When asked about how closely the second season of The Last of Us show on HBO would follow the game, Mazin was reluctant to give a straight answer, but promised that no character in the show would have “plot armor” and that while events sometimes closely followed the game, other times they would be “wildly different.”
“I dispute the premise. I’m very studiously avoiding confirming anything even through a passive acceptance of a question. Anybody that has played the game and then watched the first season knows that sometimes we do exactly what happened to the game and sometimes we do something wildly different. We also don’t necessarily do things in the same order, or at the same time.”
Mazin added, ““In our first season, we repeatedly did things that were upsetting — everyone died except Joel and Ellie. People understood watching the show that this was a story where people aren’t safe. If you are planning on running a series for as long as it can, you put plot armor [slang for characters who repeatedly and inexplicably avoid harm or misfortune] on your main characters until such time the actors are asking for too much money or their Q score goes down or the ratings go down, and then you kill them.
“That’s not what we do or what HBO does. So anyone can die at any moment, as far as I’m concerned.”
When asked if Season 2 of The Last of Us show on HBO might feature Abby, a divisive character among The Last of Us fans, Mazin simply replied, “Maybe.”
How many seasons of The Last of Us show on HBO do you hope there will be? Do you want to see Abby in The Last of Us Season 2? Let us know in the comments.
All nine episodes of The Last Of Us show on HBO are now streaming on Max. The show features Pedro Pascal as protagonist Joel Miller, Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah, Bella Ramsey as deuteragonist Ellie, Anna Torv as Joel’s partner Jess, and Gabriel Luna as Joel’s younger brother Tommy.
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