THE LAST OF US Co-Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann Break Down Season 2, Look Ahead to Season 3

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede   HBO’s THE LAST OF US just wrapped up its second season in spectacular, cliff-hanging fashion, and all episodes are available on Crave. In a virtual panel with TV writers, co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann shared their fascinating thoughts on where THE LAST OF US has been, and where it might be headed in Season 3. SPOILER ALERT: be aware that Mazin and Druckmann openly discuss certain major developments that occurred in Season 2.   Q: What do you think fans of the series should be feeling at this point? CRAIG MAZIN: “What I want the audience to feel thematically at the end of the season is that they aren’t where they were, but they’re not yet where they are going to go. There has always been a story that we’ve been telling about the good and bad of love, but we switch which side is good and bad sometimes. Because sometimes we do need somebody to punish someone for us. Sometimes we do need somebody to protect us. Sometimes violence must be done to save the innocent. These are difficult moments. But of course, then there are times where sacrifice is called for, where putting other people first is called for, where creation does more than destruction. We understand that both Ellie (played by Bella Ramsey) and Abby (played by Kaitlyn Dever) are moving forward in trouble. They are in moral trouble because their certainty is beginning to fail them. And we can see it with Ellie for sure, because – faced with the consequences of the things she has done, and people that didn’t deserve to die, dying – she’s starting to feel maybe a swing of the pendulum, and we don’t know where these two are going to end. But what I would hope the audience feels is that they are not done. They’re not done growing, or they are not done falling. We’ll have to wait and see which it is.” NEIL DRUCKMANN: “It’s the power of love, and all the wonderful things and the horrible things that come with it. And we kind of see it (in the second-last episode of Season 2), where the most joy people can experience is through love, and through the happiness of someone else you love. When you have a kid, you don’t feel new things, but all those feelings just become a lot more intense. So that joy you have is a lot more intense. The fear you have is a lot more intense. The anger you have when someone hurts your kid is a lot more intense. And then surrounding that episode on either side are really horrible things that people do in the name of love, and the question that we’re asking, and the thing we’re interrogating in this story, is when you’ve committed such horrible things, depending on your circumstance, can you ever come back from that? And like we see in that porch scene, Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) is trying to come back from what he has done, even though he doesn’t regret it. And now we have these two characters (Ellie and Abby) that are on this downward spiral, trying to do justice for the people that they love, and we’ll see how far that goes.”   Q: THE LAST OF US is based on a videogame, but as far as the TV show goes, a choice had to be made as to exactly when Season 2 would end. Were any other options seriously entertained other than the cliff-hanger that fans witnessed? NEIL DRUCKMANN: “The answer is always yes, because we entertain everything. But nothing is coming to mind, because whatever we entertained didn’t stick for very long. This always felt like the natural end point for the season.” CRAIG MAZIN: “Honestly, we were open to a different ending. We talked about it a lot. We considered everything. And then in the end, I just remember saying, ‘isn’t this part of the genetics of how this story functions?’ Now, what it means is, we have to take risks as a television show, and HBO has to back us taking risks. But then again, we just did kill Pedro Pascal. Like, they understand that this show is going to be a different show every season, which is sort of a tricky thing to do when you’re a hit show. You keep asking people, ‘I know you love this, but we’re taking it away, and giving you this now.’ And then hopefully they go, ‘oh, well, you know what? We actually really like this.’ We’re giving you this now, because that’s how the story works.”   Q: What can you tell us about the narrative structure of Season 3? CRAIG MAZIN: “(Season 2) was tricky because it was so driven by this traumatic event: Joel dies. And once Joel dies, it is so big and impactful, that you don’t have quite as much room to sort of wander down some side streets. You really need to stick to what happens as a result of that, as well as what happened leading up to it. But I think next season, we probably will have a bit more flexibility … (Season 3) will arrive and it will do what it does, and even if I thought I knew now exactly how it was going to go, I’m experienced enough to know that two weeks from now, we may have a different idea of how it should go. All I can say is, we haven’t seen the last of Kaitlyn Dever, and we haven’t seen the last of Bella Ramsey, and we haven’t seen the last of Isabella Merced (who plays Dina), and we haven’t even seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story.” NEIL DRUCKMANN: “I guess I’ll give a bit more, which is, whether you will see them on screen or not, their presence will be there throughout.”   Q: But at the end of Season 1, you promised “more infected” in Season 2, and you definitely delivered. Any promises for Season 3? CRAIG MAZIN: “Musical numbers? I think they do start getting musical (laughs). I want to see, like, cell block tango with clickers, incredible. No current promises. Other than to say that, I hope people now realize, if they have played the games, that we don’t tend to ignore the impactful infected moments. We are creating new moments in addition, I think, especially in (Season 2), like the attack on Jackson, things like that. But when it comes to big things, we’re generally … I hope people can see we’re attentive.” NEIL DRUCKMANN: “Big things is the key word.” CRAIG MAZIN: “Big. So big.”   Q: Anything at all you can tease? CRAIG MAZIN: “Rats! What should we talk about?” (laughs) NEIL DRICKMANN: “You know, there’s a certain crane that you’re seeing in (the Season 2 finale) that is very telling.”   billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv