Fate Of The Last Of Us Has Already Been Decided
After the debut of the first two episodes, The Last of Us has been renewed for Season 2.
We haven’t seen the last of The Last of Us. As reported by Variety, The Last of Us Season 2 has been ordered by HBO. Only two episodes have so far debuted of the Pedro Pascal-led series, but the response has apparently been more than enough to warrant the renewal.
The Last of Us executive producer, Neil Druckmann, who wrote the game the series is based on and was its creative director, responded to the Season 2 news with understandable enthusiasm and gratitude:
“I’m humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so many people have tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’s journey. The collaboration with Craig Mazin, our incredible cast & crew, and HBO exceeded my already high expectations. Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again with season two! On behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog & PlayStation, thank you!”
-Neil Druckmann
With what The Last of Us has achieved after only two episodes, it would be much more surprising if HBO hadn’t chosen to green light a Season 2 for the post-apocalyptic series. Not only did a stunning 4.7 million people tune in to watch the series premiere, but 22 percent more people — 5.7 million — tuned in for the second episode. As Variety notes, that constitutes the largest week-two audience growth that an original HBO series has enjoyed in the network’s history.
Ironically, there was a lot of bad news going around a couple of Sundays ago when The Last of Us premiered that signaled good news for any hopes for a Season 2. So many people logged on to HBO Max simultaneously to stream the premiere episodes, that it crashed the service for users all over the place.
Yes, Pedro Pascal is in it and yes, he is playing a hero who is guarding a child who is not his biological offspring, but no — The Last of Us isn’t a spinoff of The Mandalorian. The series is based on the insanely popular and acclaimed 2013 video game of the same name. Pascal plays Joel, a survivor of a global fungal infection, who guides 14-year-old Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the remains of what was once the United States.
Ellie is, as far as anyone knows, the only human alive who is immune to the fungal infection that has ruined the world, and Joel fights through countless dangers in hopes of delivering Ellie to doctors who hope to finally end the deadly plague. The game’s creators have said Season 1 would cover the events of the first game as well the Left Behind DLC. This would suggest that the The Last of Us Season 2 may adapt the acclaimed but controversial 2020 sequel The Last of Us Part II. If that’s the case, then fans could be in for brutality that makes what we’ve seen in Season 1 seem tame in comparison.
