Summary

The Last of Us series faithfully adapts the game, but also enriches minor characters to create new, compelling stories.
Showrunner Craig Mazin plans to stay faithful to the game material, with Season 2 diving into the second game’s story.
Mazin is open to a third game in The Last of Us series, although it remains purely speculative at this point.

HBO’s The Last of Us is an incredibly faithful adaptation of Naughty Dog’s acclaimed video game series, with numerous scenes, lines of dialogue, and even specific shots taken directly from the game. However, HBO’s version achieved the phenomenal task of improving upon some aspects of the game by expanding upon and fleshing out the game’s minor characters, and showrunner Craig Mazin promises more of this in future seasons of the series.

Speaking to Deadline about the upcoming second season, Craig Mazin discussed his excitement to continue building The Last of Us’s lore in the new season. Mazin expressed his belief that his adaptation has to stay faithful to the games, and that he doesn’t want to go the Game of Thrones route and continue the show without the source material. “As the co-creator of this television show, there’s no world where I would want our show to go beyond the source material that people have in the world,” Mazin said. He then discussed his process for enriching the games’ minor characters with their own voices and stories in the show. He continued:

“Our show as people know it on HBO is going to cover the material from the second game and then quite a bit of material that is relevant to that story but, as I said, wanders down interesting new paths, unseen stories that were told within the context of that games material.”

One of Season 1’s most-beloved episodes (and considered by some to be one of the best episodes of TV of all-time) is a semi-original story featuring Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett). Bill appeared briefly in the game to help Joel and Ellie reach the fireflies, but in the game’s timeline, Frank had already passed. Mazin took that concept and dedicated an entire episode to telling their story as they grew old together in the zombie-infested wasteland. While few were expecting the characters to return for Season 2, Mazin put the narrative nails in their coffins when he confirmed in January that neither character would come back for Season 2.

Related The Last Of Us Star Hits Back at “Homophobic Hate” in Spirit Awards Winner’s Speech Nick Offerman won another award for his portrayal of Bill in The Last of Us at the Spirit Awards, and spoke out about hate against his gay character.

A Third Last of Us Game Could Be On the Way

Craig Mazin is taking a slow and meticulous approach to adapting the second game in the series, which is twice as long in playtime as the first. His adaption of the second game is being split into two seasons, with Season 2 running for seven episodes, and Season 3 reported to be much larger. He has already declared that he will not continue without the source material, but there could be another The Last of Us game on the way for Mazin to adapt.

While it is purely speculative, Mazin briefly addressed the new rumors in his conversation with Deadline, saying, “as a fan, I’m thrilled that there might be a third Last of Us game.” However, Craig Mazin is as in the dark about a third game as the rest of the fan base, as the report confirms that Naughty Dog CEO, Neil Druckmann, has not discussed a new video game with Mazin.

The Last of Us
Season 1 is available to stream on Max. Season 2 is expected to be released sometime in 2025.