Can The Last of Us return for a third season — or even a fourth? The show’s cocreator, Craig Mazin, has some thoughts.
“[Cocreator] Neil [Druckmann] and I really are focused on telling the story that’s there, and it will come to an end, whether it is in season 3 or season 4,” he told People in an interview published on Sunday, March 30.
Mazin, 53, noted that he and Druckmann, 46, are not interested in creating their own stories that exist outside of The Last of Us video game. (Druckmann wrote the game, which launched in 2013, and its 2014 sequel. The future of the video game franchise is still up in the air.)
The Last of Us premiered on HBO in January 2023, with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey starring as Joel and Ellie, respectively. The first season takes place primarily in the 20 years after the world was ravaged by the cordyceps virus, turning humans who encounter it into a breed of Infected. Their story is set to continue in the second season, which premieres on Sunday, April 13, with the additions of several characters, including Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby.
“I’m not sure how I can top this,” Mazin told People of the show. “So, if there’s more or less of this to happen, other people will carry it forward. And I’ll go make tiny, tiny little things. Two people talking in a room, in a warm room.”
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While making the show’s first season, Mazin learned that “there is no amount of attention that is enough,” which is something they implemented into season 2.
“We were rewarded, I think, for our attention to detail and our love and care and concern,” Mazin said. “But there were practical things we learned too.”
He continued, “We got much better at how to portray the infected onscreen because we’re learning as we go with a lot of that stuff. I think the success of season 1 just reinforced that the way we followed our hearts was the right way to go for season 2.”
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Pascal recently commented on the show’s success following the first season, and how it “created a new chapter” in his life in a “profound way.”
The actor explained during an interview with Variety that The Last of Us has been “received in a way that is in measure with how deeply important it means to all of us, [which] is a rare thing.”
