The Last of Us showrunner and creator Neil Druckmann says he's not too worried about how diehard fans of the game will react to season 2.
"I've said this before, but I feel like the best way we could respect our fans and honor them is to not worry about them when we're crafting the thing because outside influence or pressure doesn't lead you to good creative choices," Druckmann tells 12DOVE.
When season 2 was first announced, there was quite a bit of fan chatter about everything from aging up Bella Ramsey (or casting an older actor) to who would be the perfect Abby to whether or not they could pack the entire game into one season. With season 1 being so revered and beloved by diehard fans (like myself), there's a lot of intense hype and speculation around the second season. Druckmann, creator of the video game franchise, is confident that he and co-showrunner Craig Mazin have made the "correct" choices for the TV adaptation.
"Craig and I are just very meticulous in how we interrogate every moment, every creative choice and kind of look at all the options in front of us to make sure we're picking as Craig likes to say 'the correct one.' And it's a correct one for The Last of Us in this medium, which wouldn't necessarily be the same correct one for The Last of Us in the video game format."
One of these choices includes stretching Part 2 over more than one season, with Mazin saying that four sounds like a good number. This makes perfect sense considering the length of the game. For reference, The Last of Us Part 1 takes around 15 hours of gameplay to finish the main story, but around 25 hours to hit 100% completion. It made sense for the story to be told over nine 60-minute long episodes. The Last of Us Part 2 takes around 22-26 hours to finish the main story...but up to 42 hours to hit 100% completion. Because the game is so dense, it makes a whole lot of sense to stretch this out over multiple seasons.
Continues Druckmann: "So the stress we often feel is with the resource that we have, with the time that we have, are we taking the best advantage of that to make the best choices for the best possible show?"
The Last of Us season 2 hits HBO and Max on April 13. For more, check out our list of the best Max shows and the best Max movies to stream right now.
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