[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for The Last of Us Season 2.]

Summary

In Season 2 of the HBO series ‘The Last of Us,’ survival in a post-apocalyptic world requires constant vigilance, and therefore, community safety can be deceptive.

The second season delves deeper into Ellie’s preparation for dangers ahead and introduces Abby’s grief-driven narrative.

Showrunner Craig Mazin discusses the need for multiple seasons, character development, and evolving threats.

The seven-episode second season of the HBO series The Last of Us takes place five years after the events of the first season, with Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) at odds in an even more dangerous and unpredictable post-apocalyptic world. Surviving and thriving in a community can give a false sense of safety and security in a world where you should never become complacent. There’s a deeper weight to Ellie in Season 2, as she trains for what could be to come, and while scouting for Infected is risky, the first episode back leaves viewers with a sense that that’s only the beginning of the dangers to come.
At the same time, we’re introduced to a young woman named Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who’s experiencing grief so deep that it’s intertwined with a pain and rage that’s palpable. Joel’s actions at the end of the Season 1 finale will have consequences in Season 2, as we learn that the hero of one person’s story can very well be the villain of another’s.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, showrunner Craig Mazin discussed their process for figuring out how many seasons they’re going to need and how many episodes per season, giving viewers insight into who Abby is and what she wants, the evolving Cordyceps, and how fans might feel after the Season 2 finale.
Check back for more interviews with the cast and creators every day this week.
The Creative Team for ‘The Last of Us’ Knows Where Their Story Has to End and Are Working Toward That

“We knew there was just no way we could possibly do this in one season.”

Collider: You’ve talked about how it was clear that the story for Part II of the game would not fit nicely into one season, so you wanted to break that into a couple of seasons. At the same time you did that, did you also have to have a very clear sense of what Season 3 would be, since you were going to break that story apart?
CRAIG MAZIN: Yeah, and maybe even a Season 4, depending. We’re still doing the math. It’s a simple physics problem. You have this much stuff to fit in this much space. Given the size of the show, what our ambitions are, and the way we want to project the scope and the beauty of all it, including the horror of all of it, it takes an enormous amount of time to write it, to perfect it, and to make it. I’m a handcraft guy, building an enormous thing. It’s how we did Chernobyl. It’s how we did Season 1. It’s how we’re doing Season 2. That means I don’t have the factory floor. It takes time and it takes a lot of resources, which HBO happily affords us. So, we knew there was just no way we could possibly do this in one season.
So then, the question really is, where’s the natural break? And given the interesting way that Neil [Druckmann] and Halle [Gross] laid the narrative for The Last of Us II out, do we follow it exactly? Do we move some pieces around? How do we do this? And so, just the beginning of the process of creating Season 2 really was digging into that. What do we want to tell with this season? How many episodes would we like to do it? It’s really just where would the natural break point be. And then, assuming that things go well enough that we’re back for another season, and so far so good, do we get it all done in one more season? Do we need two? If we need two, where does that season end? There’s some remaining math. We certainly are aware of where it all has to end, so we’re working backwards and towards that, at the same time.

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It seems a little bit unusual that you would then do less episodes for this season.
MAZIN: Well, I grant you, it’s counterintuitive. But when you realize you have the freedom, I’m not saying that this is this is how it goes, but let’s say you have 23 episodes that you need to do to tell the remaining story. You can’t get 23 episodes done in a season, but let’s say the maximum effort is nine [episodes], which is what we did in Season 1. That still won’t get you there. So, at that point, you start thinking, “Okay, isn’t it more about where the story break would feel okay for the audience?” We have to figure out where we can say, “Guys, we’re leaving you here. We’ll see you in a couple of years.” As it turns out, that happened to be seven [Episodes]. Now, the third season might want to end after nine [episodes]. We’re still trying to figure that out, but it’s absolutely a function of where it feels narratively safe and effective to take the pause.
‘The Last of Us’ Showrunner Craig Mazin Wanted Viewers to Be Able to Understand Abby

“People need to know who she is, they need to know what happened to her, and they need to know what she intends to do about it.”

Image via HBO

At the same time that you’re figuring all of that out, was it also important to give viewers a way into Abby earlier in the story? You have this character that is so important but is not immediately in the game.
MAZIN: Right. But what you do get immediately in the game is a chance to be Abby. I remember thinking, “Oh, this is really interesting. I don’t know who I am.” When you play as a character, it’s you. Well, who am I? Why am I here? What do I want? Why do I want it? You don’t know, and that was actually a really cool feeling. I liked how thrown I was. And of course, what ends up happening is, as you’re trying to keep yourself alive, you are naturally therefore trying to keep Abby alive, and a connection occurs. That’s obviously not the case when we’re watching a television show. And so, Neil and I talked quite a bit about this and felt like it was important to not feel hemmed in by the specific structure that worked so well when gameplay was a factor. We said, “People need to know who she is, they need to know what happened to her, and they need to know what she intends to do about it.”
That anchoring just seemed essential to us, or else we weren’t quite sure how we were going to be able to pull it off. And even if we wanted to make people wait, how long can we make them wait? When you play a video game, if you’re really interested in beating The Last of Us II as fast as you can, maybe it’s a couple of days. It’s a couple of great days, but it’s a couple of days. But you have to wait at least a week between episodes, no matter what, when you’re watching the show. At some point, people are going to be like, “Yeah, but who are you?” And so, that’s why we went in that direction.

8:30

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“I Know About the Conversation Surrounding Abby”: ‘The Last of Us’ Kaitlyn Dever Is Staying Focused on Her Emotional Season 2 Journey

Dever also talks about how the shock of grief has shaped Abby in Season 2 of ‘The Last of Us.’

At the end of the first episode, we see someone drop a sparkler on the ground and we see something waking up in the pot. For those who aren’t familiar with what that could mean and what that damage could be, what would you say about how that will play into what comes next?
MAZIN: I was particularly interested in the theme of progress. I find it very admirable that we, as human beings, can experience and endure crises, sometimes of our own making, sometimes visited upon us by the vicissitudes of nature and the world, and in those moments, we often get very, very fatalistic. And then, we come out on the other side and we just go back about our lives. I’ve seen it happen in my own life, in smaller ways. My grandparents went through the war, and then on the other side, they were like, “Let’s get back to life now.”
That’s what the people of Jackson are doing. They’re getting good at living in the post-apocalypse, so much so that, at least inside their walls, it’s not really the post-apocalypse. They’re having New Year’s Eve dances. They have potluck dinners. They have clothing. They have a laundry that they use. They’re clean. But part of progress is the disruption of the world around you. And even as you welcome in refugees to save more people and thus have to build or at least renovate some homes to put them in, you begin to have to break some things. And in the breaking of things and the re-encroaching upon nature, you begin to disrupt the equilibrium around you. And sure enough, while humans evolve, so too do the Cordyceps.
The Season 2 Finale of ‘The Last of Us’ “Pinned Back” Showrunner Craig Mazin

“Perspective changes everything.”

Image via HBO

It feels like we’re all probably going to go through the five stages of grief watching this season. What do you think people will say or feel after seeing the last episode of the season?
MAZIN: If they feel the way I feel, they’re going to be a little shell-shocked and they’re also going to feel weirdly excited to see what happens next. It’s not about how much story there is. It’s about whose story it is. So much of what makes the second game and this season and this part of the story fascinating to me is how perspective changes everything. In a Rashomonic sense, but also just in a very specific sense to these people, these young women, who are going through something so similar, and even in the same space and time but not together, how that unfolds is fascinating to me. But I do know that how I felt at the end of watching all of it, I don’t know what the word in English is, but it pins you back. Well, it pinned me back. I hope it works that way for others.

8:33

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Ramsey also talks about the frustration and distance Ellie is experiencing when it comes to Joel.

I feel like it will involve some crying and some cursing, simultaneously.
MAZIN: There may be some cry-cursing.

Custom Image By Yailin Chacon

Custom Image By Yailin Chacon

The Last Of Us

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Directors

Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado

Writers

Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin

The Last of Us airs on HBO and is available to stream on Max. Check out the Season 2 trailer: