Craig Mazin, the showrunner behind HBO’s acclaimed live-action TV adaptation of The Last of Us, has confirmed the team is working to a four season plan, insisting there’s “no way” the narrative can be wrapped up in three seasons.
This isn’t the first time the magic number four has been floated in regard to The Last of Us’ TV adaptation, of course. Mazin started the chatter all the way back in 2023, suggesting the show could “end up being three or five [seasons]. But four seems like a good number. Some seasons, because of the story we’re telling, will need fewer episodes and some will need more.”
Then earlier this year, HBO exec Francesca Orsi mirrored those comments, saying it was “looking like four seasons” for the adaption, but stressed HBO didn’t have “a complete or final plan”. Instead, she appeared to defer to Mazin, adding, “I wouldn’t want to confirm that, but it’s looking like this season and then two more seasons after this and we’re done.”
And now Mazin has seemingly made that official in an interview with Collider. Discussing the big Joel moment that kicked off season two, Mazin explained, “It’s so impactful. It’s such a narrative nuclear bomb that it’s hard to wander away from it. We can’t really take a break and move off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story. I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for Season 3. I think we’ll have a little more room there.”
“There’s a decent chance that Season 3 will be longer than Season 2,” he elaborated, “just because the manner of that narrative and the opportunities it affords us are a little different… but certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome.”
As for season two, there’s just one episode to go following this week’s sixth instalment. Opinions on the second season have been a little more mixed compared to the widely acclaimed original, with Eurogamer’s The Last of Us superfan Victoria Kennedy recently pondering if Mazin and team might have bitten off more than they can chew.