Craig Mazin, showrunner for HBO’s The Last of Us series, spoke with Hollywood Reporter ahead of its debut.
One of the topics was the future of the show. Mazin and Neil Druckmann, creator of The Last of Us for Naughty Dog, state the first series covers the entirety of the first game. As for what the future holds, nothing is set in stone right now. Druckmann and Marzin don’t commit to whether or not season two covers The Last of Us Part II.
“I think there’s more story to tell,” Druckmann says regarding the future of the series and regarding a potential The Last of Us Part III. Despite this, he doesn’t commit to anything. As for Marzin, he’s confident in the future of the series but wants to stay faithful to the source material.
“We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games,” Mazin tells Hollywood Reporter. “We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.”
There seems to be a plan in place for a concrete ending. “I don’t have any interest in a spinning-plates-go-on-forever show,” Mazin adds. “When it becomes a perpetual motion machine, it just can’t help but get kind of … stupid. Endings mean everything to me.”
The Last of Us debuts on HBO on January 15th, 2023. The first game, The Last of Us Part I, was recently re-released for PlayStation 5. The sequel, The Last of Us Part II, was released on PlayStation 4 in 2020.
