Back in July, Neil Druckmann, the creator of The Last of Us video games and co-creator of the HBO series, revealed that he would be exiting the show ahead of its third season.
Druckmann was heavily involved with the first two seasons of the survival horror drama series as a showrunner, writer and executive producer alongside co-creator Craig Mazin, but decided to end his involvement in order to dedicate “complete focus” to Naughty Dog and the developer's future video game projects.
Whether one of those projects will turn out to be a third The Last of Us game remains to be seen, but Druckmann has indicated that there may be one more chapter in the story.
“I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO,” Druckmann said in a statement at the time. “With work completed on Season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on Season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative.”
“Co-creating the show has been a career highlight. It’s been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct and write on the last two seasons,” he added.
Many believed that there must be more to Druckmann's exit than his statements suggested, but if this is the case, he's still not prepared to spill the details.
During a new interview with Variety, Druckmann broke his silence on his departure.
“Our goals for the show — I had multiple goals, some of them were selfish. I wanted to elevate The Last of Us beyond the people that have played the game. I felt like that story could find a bigger audience for people that will never play video games. I wanted to elevate Naughty Dog, and PlayStation has been a home for me for 21 years now, and it’s given me all the support to tell these wonderful stories, and I wanted to elevate video games. It was such a crazy goal, but I wanted someone to watch this show and have no idea it was based on the video game, and then be like, ‘Wait, that’s based on a video game?'”
Again, Druckmann may be unwilling to disclose any more... or, he's being completely transparent here and simply found himself overwhelmed with the workload!
"It was quite challenging to be as involved as a co-showrunner on Season 1 and Season 2, while running a studio and working and directing and writing a game," he went on. "I really appreciated at Naughty Dog how many people stepped up while I was gone working on Season 2. Specifically, I spent quite a bit of effort on Episode 206 — prepping it, writing it, directing it. I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to do that again. So I felt it around that period when we’re wrapping up all the press and really about to get started with earnest in Season 3, that was a good time to reassess everything."
Druckmann also revealed when he made the decision to step away from the series.
"It was right when we were about to start the writers' room for Season 3. I looked at what's in front of me, what would the next season might look like, and with all the various Last of Us things I'm working on - not just the show - with all the various games I'm working on, the biggest one that takes up most of my time is Intergalactic: The Heretic Profit, our next big IP for Naughty Dog and PlayStation, it felt like I could better serve all of my responsibilities if I stayed at a higher level."
The Last of Us will continue with Mazin as showrunner, but it sounds like Druckmann will still be involved in some capacity.
"We had started talking about what is left to adapt back when we were working on Season 2, because we knew we would not be able to finish it and we were gonna end on a cliffhanger. As I was saying earlier, my job now is to stay very high level. As much as I miss getting into the weeds and working on the effects shots and giving script notes and really getting into the details of it, I’m trying to just shepherd it. My hope for Season 3, and what I’d like to I think I can best contribute to it, is to make sure it’s as deeply faithful as Season 1 was. Because I feel like that is the gold standard for this kind of adaptation, while enjoying all these beautiful expansions that happen naturally with the rest of the team and how they’re working on Season 3. So that is where my involvement will stay is at that very, very high level."
Do you plan on watching The Last of Us season 3? Let us know in the comments.