The Last of Us season 2 will "move the bar up," says showrunner

The Last of Us could hardly be accused of pulling any punches when it took HBO by storm earlier this year, but co-showrunner Craig Mazin promises that season 2 will push things even further.

"We’re certainly also going to push the technology that we use forward," he told Deadline. "We learned so much, particularly in regard to the infected and how to better deliver scenes with them. So, we’re just going to keep moving the bar up and up and up. That’s kind of our call to arms."

The first season set of the video game adaptation set records for HBO and HBO Max with its viewership figures – over the course of its first six episodes, it averaged 30.4 million viewers per episode, the highest average figure since Game of Thrones season 7 aired in 2017.

"From a process point of view, Neil [Druckmann, co-showrunner] and I are pretty much in agreement that we’re not changing a damn thing," Mazin continued. "We are going to [continue to] push ourselves in all sorts of ways… It’s our actors who are going to have to push themselves even more. As they age up, as time has passed, what does that mean to them physically in their bodies? And how do they move, and how do they fight? And what happens as the world gets more and more physical and dangerous?"

There will be a time jump between season 1 and season 2, in line with the one between the two installments of the game source material. It's already been confirmed, however, that Bella Ramsey will continue to play Ellie, despite the gap.

While we wait for The Last of Us season 2 to arrive on our TV screens, look ahead to all the other most highly anticipated new TV shows coming our way, this year and beyond.