The Last of Us HBO series has been a rousing success in terms of reviews, fan reaction, and viewership, largely due to how closely the TV show stuck to the source material. The story of the first game was neatly and faithfully adapted into a single season of television that told a complete, satisfying story. Of course, now that, that story has been told, the tricky question of what to do with The Last of Us Part II arises. Warning: The rest of this article will touch on some SPOILERS for TLOU Part II.
While The Last of Us Part II was divisive for the specific story it told, it was also just a much larger, less-concise tale, running for nearly 25 hours in video game form. It might be a stretch to be able to pack all that into a single season, and in a new interview with GQ, series creator Neil Druckmann confirmed the adaptation of TLOU Part II will stretch for “more than one season.” Whether that means two seasons or possibly even more, Druckmann wouldn’t say (I’m guessing it will depend on how well Season 2 is received).
We also have to unpack the fact that The Last of Us Part II just wasn’t as well received as the original game. Of course, some had a visceral negative reaction to the death of Joel, but many (myself included) had larger issues with the game’s basic structure and storytelling. How are the producers of The Last of Us HBO series going to tackle all of that, particularly given the demands of the television industry? For instance, they’re probably not going to want to largely write out their big star Pedro Pascal right at the beginning of Season 2. Well, per producer Craig Mazan, it sounds like they may change a few more things about The Last of Part II than they did with Part I.
“There are going to be things that are going to be different, and there are things that are going to be identical. There are things that are going to be added and enriched. There are some things that are going to be flipped. Our goal remains exactly what it was for the first season, which is to deliver a show that makes fans happy.”
That said, don’t think the HBO show will be shying away from controversy. For his part, Druckmann is ready for another round of strong reactions…
“I guess, to go back to the earlier quote from Craig, which is like… I don’t care. How they react is how they react, that is completely outside of our control. So how do we make the best TV show version of [The Last of Us Part II’s] story?”
I’m certainly intrigued to see where they go with future seasons of The Last of Us. Adapting a near-perfect story is a challenge, but adapting a promising, yet flawed story is a completely different task. I’m interested to see what they do with it and what changes might be made.
The Last of Us HBO series wrapped up its first season yesterday. A start date for future seasons has not been announced.
