The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann comments on leaving the TV series ahead of season 3
Back in April, just days before season 2 of the HBO series adaptation of the video game The Last of Us started airing, HBO officially announced that the show has been renewed for a third season… but a few months later, Neil Druckmann, who co-created the Naughty Dog video games the series is inspired by and was also a creator, executive producer, writer, and director on the show for the first two seasons, announced that he would be stepping back from the show ahead of season 3, leaving it in the hands of fellow showrunner Craig Mazin. Druckmann said he was taking that step back so he can “transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.” Now, during an interview with Variety, Druckmann has dug deeper into the decision.
The story of the The Last of Us video game is set years after a fungal plague wiped out much of humanity, transforming most into vicious zombie-like monsters, the story follows Joel, who’s living in a militarized quarantine zone. He has a close relationship with Tess, who operates in the black market of this community. Together, they’ve become known by the local criminal underworld for their ruthlessness. On a mission to reclaim their stolen guns, they run into the leader of the Fireflies, a resistance group, who tasks them with smuggling a young girl named Ellie out of the zone. This mission soon becomes much more than they were prepared for. Here’s the season 2 logline: Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.
Speaking with Variety, Druckmann said he started thinking about stepping away from the show “right when we were about to start the writers’ room for season 3. I looked at what’s in front of me, what would the next season might look like, and with all the various Last of Us things I’m working on — not just the show — with all the various games I’m working on, the biggest one that takes up most of my time is Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, our next big IP for Naughty Dog and PlayStation, it felt like I could better serve all of my responsibilities if I stayed at a higher level. It was quite challenging to be as involved as a co-showrunner on season 1 and season 2, while running a studio and working and directing and writing a game. I really appreciated at Naughty Dog how many people stepped up while I was gone working on season 2. Specifically, I spent quite a bit of effort on Episode 206 — prepping it, writing it, directing it. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do that again. So I felt it around that period when we’re wrapping up all the press and really about to get started with earnest in season 3, that was a good time to reassess everything.” He added that he and Mazin talked about “what is left to adapt back when we were working on season 2, because we knew we would not be able to finish it and we were gonna end on a cliffhanger. As I was saying earlier, my job now is to stay very high level. As much as I miss getting into the weeds and working on the effects shots and giving script notes and really getting into the details of it, I’m trying to just shepherd it. My hope for season 3, and what I’d like to I think I can best contribute to it, is to make sure it’s as deeply faithful as season 1 was. Because I feel like that is the gold standard for this kind of adaptation, while enjoying all these beautiful expansions that happen naturally with the rest of the team and how they’re working on season 3. So that is where my involvement will stay is at that very, very high level.“
HBO and HBO Max content chairman/CEO Casey Bloys has said that we shouldn’t expect to see The Last of Us season 3 until sometime in 2027.
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