The second season of The Last of Us is coming to HBO and Max next month, and you can feel the anticipation. The first season adapted the first video game in Naughty Dog's zombie survival video game series, and it was a huge hit. As anyone who's played The Last of Us: Part II knows, the second season will have some wild, out-of-this-world plot twists destined to shock audiences, but co-showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (the guy behind the original games) are ready.
The pair talked to Variety about what's in store. As in the first season, the second season will expand and rework things from the game. For instance, in the first season, we spent a whole episode with Frank and Bill, a pair of minor characters from The Last of Us: Part I; their bottle episode ended up being the highlight of the season. This time around, we'll be getting more information on a character named Eugene. In the second game, all we know about Eugene is that he grows pot underground; Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Dina (Isabela Merced) stumble on his stash early in the game. For the show, they've cast character actor Joe Pantoliano, and you don't do that unless you have a plan.
“I get excited when I see these opportunities,” Druckmann said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I don’t know Eugene that well!’ The story we told [in the game] was somewhat superficial. The way this character comes in really gets to the heart of Joel and Ellie and their relationship.”
Beware MAJOR SPOILERS for The Last of Us season 2 ahead
Ah, yes, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie, the surrogate father-daughter pair at the heart of the first season. It gets hard to talk about this any further without getting into SPOILERS, so be warned.
Joel and Ellie bonded as they traveled across the post-apocalyptic United States. In the finale, a militaristic group tried to use Ellie's unique immunity to the zombie pathogen to create a cure, with a catch: she would have to die in surgery. Joel, who by this point thought of Ellie as his daughter, killed everyone in the hospital rather than let that happen, and lied to Ellie about what happened afterwards.
Ellie eventually susses out the details, which leads to a rift in their relationship come season 2. “While Bella and I are forever joined, to not have them near me for every part of Season 2 felt like a cruel separation,” Pascal said. “Good for my co-dependent nature, bad for my heart.”
Ramsey, meanwhile, sees the separation as pushing Ellie into new places. “It felt like Ellie maturing and growing up,” they said. “Me and Pedro were with each other literally through everything all the time the whole [first] season. This season was much more of an isolated one for Ellie. It was a lonelier experience, but I don’t say that in a negative way.”
Then there's the moment that set off a firestorm among fans when The Last of Us: Part II came out in 2020: a new character named Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever — and this is your last chance to turn back before you get exposed to MAJOR SPOILERS — kills Joel in front of Ellie, revenge for him killing her family back at the hospital.
It's hard to overstate how much blowback there was when fans first experienced this moment in the game. Druckmann remembers not taking it very well at the time. “I get hyper-fixated on stuff, so when I’m alone and I have time to think — and worse I have time to browse — that’s when it gets the most dangerous," he said. "I’m starting to doubt myself. ‘What if I did ruin it? What if I did make a piece of shit?’”
Happily, Mazin was on hand to reassure him, and time has been much kinder to the twist and to the game in general. I hope they make the scene as heart-rendingly brutal as possible. I want to be curled up in a fetal position crying blood into the rug. Bring it, The Last of Us.
To actually play the scene, Bella Ramsey had to use some coping mechanisms. “I’m scared of some of the bigger emotional scenes, leaving not satisfied with my performance,” they said. So “before the really dark scenes, I try to make myself as light and energetic as possible.” That's what they did with “the darkest scene this season,” which can only be Joel's death scene, although Ramsey doesn't name it as such. Before that scene, they listened to "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," a classic of the early internet, on a loop. “I was on the floor, my eyes absolutely burning with these menthol tears, and I’m just saying, ‘Peanut Butter Jelllll-y.’ You’ll probably be able to tell which one that is when you watch it.”
We definitely will.
The Last of Us season 2 will be different from the games
I am very curious to see how Druckmann, Mazin and their cast and crew translate The Last of Us: Part II to the small screen. After season 1, the showrunners have gained my trust. “I love the changes that we’ve made,” Druckmann said. “It’s a different version of that story, but its DNA is in there. Maybe more than excited, I’m really curious what their reaction will be.”
Mazin, meanwhile, told a story about getting notes from the network where they wanted to see more of this or that particularly thing they loved. His response shows the kind of restrait and good sense I wish all showrunners had: “No. You love it because that’s the right amount of it. When you do more, what makes it special starts to dissipate. It becomes comfort food. And if there’s one thing about ‘The Last of Us,’ it is not comfortable.”
Considering the game's reputation, I'm a little nervous about the second season, which premieres on Sunday, April 13. But it's an excited kind of nervous. The Last of Us games took risks and so does the show, and that's ultimately the only way to make something truly memorable and moving.
Beyond that, we have at least one more season of the show to go, as the events of The Last of Us: Part II will be spread over multiple seasons of TV. “I’ve been feeling scared lately about like, ‘Oh, yeah, I have to start thinking about Season 3,’” Mazin said. “I remember having this feeling when we were finishing Season 1, where I was like, ‘How the fuck are we going to top this?’ Now, of course, I’m like, ‘How the fuck are we going to top this?’”
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.