HBO Renews The Last of Us for Second Season After Big Debut
The Last of Us is a popular video game series from Naughty Dog (Uncharted series) and PlayStation Studios, and it has been adapted as a live-action series on HBO. Two episodes have currently aired, with the third one coming this Sunday. Today, HBO announced that The Last of Us is getting another season on the streaming service.
The first season of The Last of Us follows the story from the first game. News of a second season isn’t surprising since there is a sequel game. It also doesn’t hurt that the first episode premiered with 22 million viewers across all platforms and the show received a 97% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes.
Neil Druckmann is the co-director and writer of the first video game, and he is attached to the HBO series as a creator, writer, director, and executive producer.
“I’m humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so many people have tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’s journey,” the executive producer said. “The collaboration with Craig Mazin, our incredible cast & crew, and HBO exceeded my already high expectations. Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again with season two! On behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog & PlayStation, thank you!”
If the second season follows the second game closely, it may split audiences with the story’s direction. For now, fans can expect to go on a wild journey with the first season’s last episode airing on March 12, 2023.
Fans of Naughty Dog are wondering what’s next for the game studio. Druckmann mentioned in 2016 that Uncharted 4 was the last adventure for Nathan Drake.
“We’ve been with this character for so long…,” Druckmann tells EuroGamer. “He’s at the height of his popularity, so it’s not a good business decision, but I feel like the best way to honour him is to go out on top, to finish his story.
“Whether that’s it for Uncharted? I don’t know. At the end of the day Sony owns Uncharted and they can do whatever they want. But with the end of this story it will be really hard to do a sequel with Nathan Drake. Maybe there’ll be a prequel, maybe it will be a different character – I don’t know. But this is the end for Nathan Drake.”
He reiterated recently to Buzzfeed that there are no plans for Uncharted.
“For us, Uncharted was insanely successful — Uncharted 4 was one of our best-selling games — and [we were] able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we’re done,” said Druckmann. “We’re moving on.”
What does that mean for The Last of Us? If there is a compelling story to tell in the post-apocalyptic world, they will continue on.
“Likewise, with The Last of Us, it’s up to us whether we want to continue it or not,” he said. “Our process is the same thing we did when we did Part II, which is if we can come up with a compelling story that has this universal message and statement about love — just like the first and second game did — then we will tell that story. If we can’t come up with something, we have a very strong ending with Part II and that will be the end.”
