HBO‘s hit video game adaptation and award-winning series (has earned 8 Emmy awards), “The Last of Us,” is back on April 13 with a new string of episodes, and the second season is expected to take a darker turn if you’re familiar with the events of the second video game that the new season is taking a page from.

The show’s co-creator Craig Mazin (“Chernoboyl”), while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, agreed that the new season is going to be their version of “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” after the interviewer mentioned similarities from the show’s trailer.

“It’s true..They aren’t getting away with s**t,” Mazin said of the upcoming season of “The Last of Us.”

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“I think about that a lot — because I love ‘The Empire Strikes Back’, and I think everybody should,” Mazin told THR. “We love that one because the second act is the tough act. That’s when everything is challenged, and characters go through these moments where they can’t be who they used to be, but they’re also not ready to be who they’re supposed to be. There’s a sense of feeling lost. And I love that.”

When the idea of pursuing spinoffs like the upcoming HBO fantasy series “Dunk & Egg” (the “Game of Thrones” spinoff series “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms“) within the world of “The Last of Us” was brought up, Mazin sort of put a pin in the idea of them making more shows beyond the games. At least, coming from him.

“I’m basically setting a decade of my rapidly dwindling life on fire to tell this story. The show is so hard to make. It has to have an end. So I’m not going to go past. Who knows me, there might be a ‘Dunk & Egg’/’The Last of Us’ show that happens that somebody does. But for me, the only question is: Is it going to be one more season, or will it require two more? If this can happen all in one more season, great. If we feel like it makes sense to break it into two, then we will do that.”

“As a fan of ‘The Last of Us,’ I’d totally watch that. That would be fascinating to see. But no. They’re very respectful. They’re, in a loving way, saying, ‘Keep doing this,’” Mazin said when pressed on the idea of more shows and HBO’s feelings on the subject.

This sounds about right, given that HBO only has two video games for them to work off as source material, and a third season announcement hasn’t been made official, let alone spinoffs that focus on backstories or prequel events.

Speaking of when the show will end, Mazin told People Magazine over the weekend that they haven’t entirely settled on ending it with a third or fourth season, “[Co-creator] 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.”

“I’m not sure how I can top this,” Mazin continued. “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.”

The show’s official synopsis via HBO:

In 2003, a parasitic fungal infection ravaged the planet, turning humans into violent creatures known as the Infected. Twenty years later, hardened survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) is hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the rebel Fireflies. Season 2 of ‘The Last of Us’ picks up five years after the events of Season 1. Joel and Ellie’s collective past catches up to them, drawing them into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind

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Again, “The Last of Us” makes a return to HBO on April 13 and we can’t wait to see what happens.