‘The Last of Us’ Showrunners Tease Possibility of Four Seasons: ‘We’re Taking Our Time’

Audiences will thankfully have to wait even longer to savor the last of “The Last of Us.”

Series co-creators, executive producers, showrunners, and directors Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann confirmed to Deadline that they are slating at least four seasons for the HBO series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Season 2 of “The Last of Us” will premiere in 2025, with a newly released episode count of just seven installments.

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But that doesn’t mean that “The Last of Us” is almost out of storylines. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because we’re taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too,” Mazin said. “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.”

Mazin added, “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.”

“The Last of Us” had a record-breaking first season, becoming the most-watched debut season of a series ever for HBO. So it’s safe to say that the network is supportive of even more “The Last of Us,” even if the show surpasses its video game source material.

“The Last of Us” has already been greenlit for a third season, and the showrunners are anticipating an extension to Season 4, if not more.

“I love making the show,” Mazin said. “The scope of this thing is at times absolutely massive. And Season 3 promises to be just as big if not bigger. I don’t see a world where we go through and we go, that’s shorter than we thought. We are committed to delivering people great seasons and arcs, and HBO was amazing about this. They let us pick that natural spot. Instead of us having to figure out how to create seasons around an artificial number, we create the length of the seasons around the story and how we are telling it.”

Yet four seasons of “The Last of Us” does not mean that inherently there will be a third (or fourth) game, though. Series co-creator Druckmann, who is head of video game production company Naughty Dog, shrugged off if there will be a Part III game. Meanwhile, each episode of the HBO show has “intentional” details that propel the story forward, with or without its IP.

“Our process was, we sketched out multiple seasons, then we did a deep dive on Season 2,” Druckmann said. “To echo what Craig is saying, there is no padding, everything that is in there is intentional. There is always a goal in mind that we’re heading towards, we are never meandering for the sake of meandering, it’s always to say something greater for these characters and the themes.”

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