The Last Of Us Part 2 – dear TV only fans: if you thought season one was rough, you are not prepared for what’s in store (pic: Sony)
Alongside some new teases for season two of The Last Of Us, previous comments by the showrunners point to there also being a season three.
In the wake of the final episode of The Last Of Us, fans are already excited to know that the TV series is returning for a second season. Although this was a given considering how successful the show has been since its first episode.
Obviously, season two will adapt the second game – The Last Of Us Part 2 – which will certainly be a tall order given it has a lot more going on when compared to the first game.
In fact, according to Craig Mazin, one of The Last Of Us’ showrunners, the sequel is so big that a single season won’t be enough to adapt it all, implying that a season three is already on the cards.
Admittedly, Mazin stops short of explicitly saying that The Last Of Us Part 2 will take up two more seasons, but he doesn’t think a single season of the show would be enough to cover it – not least because the second game is much longer, at around 24 hours compared to 15 for the original.
While the first game focused on Joel and Ellie’s journey, the sequel sees you swap control between Ellie and a brand new character, Abby, who have separate storylines that intertwine throughout.
Without spoiling anything, the fact that the show will need to focus on Ellie and Abby in equal measure means that cutting the sequel’s story down to just nine episodes simply isn’t feasible.
‘It’s a big animal to take apart,’ Mazin tells IGN. ‘Because it’s a much bigger story, and it’s a more complicated story… it’s more than a season’s worth of television for sure.’
His comments do come from a January interview before a second season was even greenlit, but Mazin hasn’t commented on whether season two will be much larger to accommodate the bigger story or if it’ll be adapted across multiple seasons.
However, he and fellow showrunner and series creator Neil Druckmann have already confirmed to IGN that, much like season one, their adaptation of The Last Of Us Part 2 will deviate from the source material in a number of ways.
‘[Season 2] will be different just as this season was different,’ says Mazin. ‘Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it [won’t] be fairly different at all, but it’s going to be different. It will be its own thing. It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make.’
They also confirmed that Bella Ramsey – Ellie’s TV actor – won’t be recast for season two. This is probably because there is a time skip of four years between the two games, which would normally require a new, older actor for Ellie.
As Mazin and Druckmann point out, though, Ramsey is already 19 years old, the same age Ellie is in The Last Of Us Part 2, so there’s little reason to replace her.
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Druckmann adds that the only thing that would prompt a recasting is if Ramsey up and left the show on her own, something Druckmann jokes he wouldn’t let happen.
‘We are extremely lucky to have Bella and the stuff you saw throughout this entire season,’ says Druckmann. ‘The only way we would ever, ever consider recasting Bella is if she said, ‘I don’t want to work with you guys anymore.’
‘Even then, I’m not sure we would grant her that. We might still force her to come back to season two.’
What the two haven’t discussed though is the casting for Abby, who in the game is portrayed as extremely large and muscular – to the point where it’s impossible to think of any known actress who could even come close.
That wasn’t a problem for the game, where everyone is CGI, but it will likely prove an interesting difference for the show.
The Last Of Us – things won’t be quite the same as the game but we doubt it’ll deviate too much from the original plot (pic: HBO)
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Alongside some new teases for season two of The Last Of Us, previous comments by the showrunners point to there also being a season three.