The Last of Us: HBO Series Could Run Four Seasons According to Creators

HBO's The Last of Us will spend multiple seasons adapting Part II of the video game series.

By Charlie Ridgely

The first season of The Last of Us on HBO received a ton of praise for how well the series adapted the iconic Naughty Dog video game. Season 2, which is currently in the works, will obviously be adapting the second game in the series, but don't expect that entire game to be crammed into just a handful of TV episodes. According to creator Craig Mazin, HBO's The Last of Us could last up to four seasons as the creative team takes its time exploring the story of The Last of Us Part II.

"We don't think that we're going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons because we're taking our time and going down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too," Mazin told Deadline. "We feel like it's almost assuredly going to be the case that – as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television – Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4."

During the same interview, Mazin went on to double down on the idea that The Last of Us would last longer than three seasons. He hinted that there will be so much story left after Season 2 concludes that there's almost no way just a third installment would be enough.

"One thing is absolutely for sure, I don't see how we could tell the story that remains after Season 2 is complete in one more season," he explained.

The Last of Us Season 2 Episode Count

Part of the reason for those additional seasons is the fact that the second installment of HBO's The Last of Us will have less episodes than the acclaimed first season. According to Mazin, the writers followed "natural breakpoints" in the game, and that led them to include just seven episodes in Season 2.

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"The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons," Mazin said. "When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes."

The Last of Us Season 2 is currently in the works at HBO, but the new episodes do not yet have a release date. The premium network's next big title arrives very soon, though, with House of the Dragon Season 2 set to premiere on June 16th.

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