Enough time passed between the first season of The Last of Us on HBO and the second season that the cast had time to age. To be fair, it was mostly featured star Bella Ramsey, and it wasn't even them. It was their character, Ellie.
Ellie went from teenager to early 20s (we think), but her level of maturity was wonderfully portrayed by Ramsey. This was helped by the creators and writers of the show producing material that would make the actors' work easy. But now we know the actors' work might be less easy in season 3.
According to Deadline, series co-creator Neil Druckmann has decided to step away in terms of the artistic side. He won't write or direct any of the episodes for the next season, whenever that arrives. The hope is that it comes in 2027, but what the show will look like at that point is anyone's guess.
Neil Druckmann chooses to step back from The Last of Us season 3
Druckmann, instead, wants to focus more on his work with Naughty Dog and their future video games. The Last of Us is, after all, based on a game, though the HBO adaptation has been so great that one didn't even need to play the game to have an appreciation of the series.
Druckmann said in a statement, "I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO. 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."
That is a lot of words to basically say, "I'm leaving your favorite show, and good luck that it is good in the future."
Or maybe, and just assuming here, season 2 was not quite what HBO had hoped. Spoiler alert, but possibly kiling off Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller might have been crippling. Based on the post-episode interviews, even the cast seemed shocked by this.
The relationship between Bella and Joel was the key to the series and kept many people watching. Druckmann and his fellow writers managed to work Joel into episodes after he was brutally killed, but how long can that continue? It would appear to be a stretch to know exactly how long viewers will stay interested.
At least, the cast is solid enough to pull off another season, even without Druckmann. If there is a season 4, perhaps he returns to add levity to a great show that wasn't quite as good in its second season. We were left with a confusing cliffhanger, and that has to be resolved. Without Druckmann's input, we might wonder if we are still going to be interested beyond season 3.
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