Neil Druckmann, co-showrunner of the hit HBO series The Last of Us, has announced that he will be stepping away from the show ahead of its third season. Craig Mazin, who had served alongside Druckmann for the first two seasons, will now be the only showrunner moving forward.
Having co-created The Last of Us video game series, developed by the PlayStation video game studio Naughty Dog, Druckmann went on to co-create the HBO series with Mazin. Season 1 of The Last of Us launched in 2023 to great fanfare and success, while Season 2 dropped earlier this year. A third season was greenlit in April by HBO.
Although he will remain as executive producer on the series, in a statement posted on Naughty Dog’s official Instagram account, Druckmann disclosed that he would no longer be writing and directing the show moving forward. Druckmann cited a need to continue his responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative of Naughty Dog, as well as renewing his focus on their next project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Meanwhile, Halley Gross, co-writer of 2020’sThe Last of Us Part II and writer and executive producer on Season 2 of the HBO series, has also announced that she would no longer be working on the show. She explained that her departure was “to make space” for her upcoming future projects, but thanked Druckmann and Mazin for a wonderful time working on the show.
With Druckmann and Gross both exiting the show, Mazin looks poised to be the last of the showrunners. However, what this means for the show moving forward is still up in the air. Season 2 departed from the games and adapted them more loosely, a move that was largely attributed to Mazin. While the larger fanbase criticised the lack of fidelity to the source material, some sources have also praised Mazin’s move to explore tangential storylines and are looking forward to what his sole run will mean for the series ahead of Season 3.
As Pedro Pascal’s Joel Miller famously says in Season 1, “You have no idea what loss is.” With no news yet on what Mazin plans for Season 3, fans will have to wait and see what the fresh loss of Druckmann means for the series, which ends after four seasons.
(header image credit: FilmMagic for Getty Images)
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