The Last of Us showrunners discuss their approach to season 2

The HBO TV series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us has reached the end of its nine episode first season, and with those nine episodes it told the entire story of the video game. But there is a second video game to adapt for the second season that HBO ordered after only two episodes of The Last of Us had aired, and in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (who was also the creative director on the video games) discussed their approach to bringing the story of The Last of Us Part II to the screen for The Last of Us season 2.

When asked about their creative process, Mazin said, “Our process works. Our process of kicking the tires on everything, our process of agreeing that no matter how much we disagree, we will find a way to agree. There’s no veto power here. No one gets his way, it’s ‘we will figure it out.’ And to keep the writing process roughly what it was, which is pretty solitary and monk-like … I think we will be a little more efficient in our process, which means we’ll have more time to do some more complicated things.“

As for aging the Ellie character for the story of season 2, which will take place five years after the events of season 1: “We know what we’re going to do in terms of her costume and makeup and hair. But more importantly, we know the spirit and soul of the actor. She’s 19 now, which is the same age as Ellie in The Last of Us Part II … it will be different. It will be different just as this season was different. Sometimes it will be different radically … It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make.“

The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for. 

Pedro Pascal plays Joel, who is “tormented by past trauma and failure. He must trek across a pandemic-ravaged America, all the while protecting a girl who represents the last hope of humanity”. He is joined in the cast by Bella Ramsey as Ellie, “a 14-year-old orphan who has never known anything but a ravaged planet and who struggles to balance her instinct for anger and defiance with her need for connection and belonging… as well as the newfound reality that she may be the key to saving the world”; Anna Torv as Tess, “a smuggler and hardened survivor in a post-pandemic world”; Gabriel Luna as Joel’s brother Tommy, “a former soldier who hasn’t lost his sense of idealism and hope for a better world”; Merle Dandridge as Marlene, “the head of the Fireflies, a resistance movement struggling for freedom against an oppressive military regime”; Nico Parker as Joel’s daughter Sarah; Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, “a rebel in a quarantine zone”; Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett as Bill and Frank, “two post-pandemic survivalists living alone in their own isolated town”; and Storm Reid as Ellie’s best friend Riley.

Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson, who did the motion-capture performances for Joel and Ellie in the video game, are also in the cast of the show. Baker plays James, “a senior member of a group of settlers who must fight to keep their community alive in the face of increasingly brutal odds.” Baker also hosts a podcast that will serve as a companion to the TV series. Johnson’s character is Anna, “a pregnant woman, alone and on the run, who must give birth under the most terrifying of circumstances.”

Mazin and Druckmann are directors on the series, as are Kantemir Balagov (Beanpole), Jasmila Zbanic (Quo vadis, Aida), Peter Hoar (Doctor Who), Jeremy Webb (The Punisher), and Liza Johnson (What We Do in the Shadows).

The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television, PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and game developer Naughty Dog. Druckmann serves as executive producer alongside Carolyn Strauss, Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash and Carter Swan of PlayStation Productions, and Mazin.

What did you think of The Last of Us season 1? Are you looking forward to season 2? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.