Though this shouldn't come as much of a surprise given the critical reception and overall popularity of the first two episodes, HBO (via GameFragger.com) has officially announced that its survival horror video game adaptation, The Last of Us, has been renewed for a second season.
The series premiere has now surpassed 22 million viewers domestically, while Sunday's second episode tallied 5.7 million viewers across HBO Max and linear telecasts.
“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,” said executive producer Neil Druckmann. “The collaboration with Craig Mazin, our incredible cast and crew, and HBO exceeded my already high expectations. Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again with season two!”
“I’m so grateful to Neil Druckmann and HBO for our partnership, and I’m even more grateful to the millions of people who have joined us on this journey,” added Craig Mazin. “The audience has given us the chance to continue, and as a fan of the characters and world Neil and Naughty Dog created, I couldn’t be more ready to dive back in.”
The first season follows the plot of the game very closely (you can check out our review here), and showrunners Druckmann and Mazin recently indicated that a second season would also be as faithful as possible to The Last of Us Part II.
If you've played the game, you'll know that could result in a certain amount of backlash!
The Last of Us is set 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed and centers on the relationship between Joel, a smuggler in this new world, and Ellie, a teenager who may be key to a cure for a deadly pandemic. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle the 14-year-old girl out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey as they traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and the game's creator Neil Druckmann are writing and executive producing the show. The first season will adapt the events of the original game, but is also expected to include elements of the sequel. Druckmann recently confirmed that the series will take some liberties with the story.
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