'The Last of Us': Showrunners confirm finite seasons for HBO series starring Pedro Pascal

'This will be as many seasons as required to reach the ending, and no more,' said Neil Druckmann
UPDATED JAN 15, 2023
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in HBO's 'The Last of Us' (HBO)
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in HBO's 'The Last of Us' (HBO)

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Craig Mazin returned after 'Chernobyl' with 'The Last of Us'. The videogame-adapted HBO series is nothing short of a rave-about. The highly anticipated HBO series, 'The Last of Us' explores what life is like after a viral outbreak has destroyed modern civilization. No matter who you were before or where you come from, the world can be a brutal and ugly place when you have no one to support or assure your survival, and it is heartbreaking when you fall short of protecting your family and loved ones, all while still trying to find some pretense of hope.

Apart from Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, the HBO series will also feature Gabriel Luna as Joel's younger brother Tommy, Merle Dandridge as resistance leader Marlene, and Anna Torv as Joel's smuggler partner Tess. The first season consists of nine episodes written by Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the original Playstation game, and Mazin.

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In a recent conversation with Collider, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann spilled tea on the expected seasons of the series. The outlet asked how many seasons can be expected of the series, which was answered with a stern reply by the creators

Mazin said, "Oh, yeah, it’s finite. I don’t have much narrative interest in writing a show that is designed to perpetually continue until the network finally puts it out of its misery somewhere. I write to endings. Endings are everything to me. I don’t know how to write, if I don’t know how it ends. And also, if the show doesn’t have an ending, it means nothing ultimately is truly purposeful. All the stakes become empty because, if the network renews you, everything’s fine, and I don’t know how to do that. I don’t mind watching those shows. I like watching those shows. I just can’t write them. So, I have the benefit of the first game, which we have encompassed with this season, which has a real beginning and middle and end. And then, the story that remains, that continues forth in the work that Naughty Dog’s done on the second game, is a lot. Probably the amount of remaining story would take us more than a season to tell. But definitely, I don’t see this as something that runs on and on and on. We don’t have that ambition. Our ambition is to tell the story that exists, as best as we can, in a different medium."

While Druckmann added, "yeah, I remember, early on, I asked Craig and HBO, “How many episodes does this season need to be,” And the answer was, “As many as the story requires, and no more.” And likewise, that would be our approach for future seasons to say, “Okay, this will be as many seasons as required to reach that ending, and no more.”

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