The Last of Us season 2 is “ready to go as soon as the strike ends”

HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us premiered earlier this year, and it went down brilliantly among viewers. It averaged 30.4 million cumulative viewers per episode, the best numbers for any HBO series since Game of Thrones. The series was renewed after just a few episodes, but further progress has been put on pause due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that are shutting down Hollywood at the moment.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Neil Druckmann — the creator of The Last of Us Naughty Dog video games and co-director of the HBO adaptation — revealed that everything is in place to jump straight back into action once the strikes are resolved. “My job is really strange,” he said. “We’ve outlined all of season two and we’re ready to go as soon as the strike ends.”

The season finale of The Last of Us season 1 left us with several burning questions. After Joel (Pedro Pascal) decided to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from potentially world-saving surgery that would have killed her, he led her to believe that she wasn’t special and her immunity meant nothing. Will she find out he’s lying to her?

The Last of Us season 2 will not hit its target of filming this year

Season 2 will cover the story told in the video game The Last of Us: Part II, which is much longer and more complex than the first game. The plan is to spread the events of that game over two seasons.

Director Craig Mazin previously told EW that the show won’t reach its target of starting production this year. “I think it’s becoming essentially a near certainty that we won’t be able to start [filming] when we were hoping to start, which is upsetting,” he said.

"We are all raring to go. This is what we are born to do. This is how we not only choose to live our lives, but I believe [how we] are compelled to live our lives. Otherwise, why the hell would we do this insane job? I can assure you it’s not for money."

The Last of Us: Part III is coming!

Of course, Neil Druckmann doesn’t just have season 2 of the TV show to worry about. He’s also helming the third instalment in the video game series. When asked about the game, he played it coy.

“As far as the next game at Naughty Dog, I can’t say anything,” he teased. “My comms director over there will slaughter me.”

It’s nice to know that a third game is coming, but I’m not getting overexcited just yet. Games like this can take a long time to make; look no further than the seven-year gap between The Last of Us: Part I and Part II.

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