The Last of Us was one of the first big breakout video game adaptation series that took fans by surprise. Normally, when we see a video game adapted into a TV or movie, the results are a little lackluster. However, that started to change, and more adaptations have struck up a fanbase not only with the gaming community but also with those who never picked up a controller.
HBO’s The Last of Us season 2 started off with a big chapter for fans to tune into. With the first season capable of fully adapting the first video game, we knew that The Last of Us Part II would be far too big to contain in a single season. That was confirmed very early on in production, but just how many seasons the production will need to tell this story is still up in the air.
Fortunately, we already know that there is a season three in the works. That season was ordered very early on, and it seems that the showrunner feels they’ll need at least one more season ordered up. Speaking with Collider, Craig Mazin noted that they need a fourth season. After Collider noted the episodes and lengths of the seasons, a season four would more than likely need to be ordered to finish the story and avoid a longer third season of episodes.
Yeah, and it would take forever. There are natural perforations in the narrative where you can go, “Okay, let’s tear it here.” I think there’s a decent chance that Season 3 will be longer than Season 2, just because the manner of that narrative and the opportunities it affords us are a little different. The thing about Joel’s death is that it’s so impactful. It’s such a narrative nuclear bomb that it’s hard to wander away from it. We can’t really take a break and move off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story. I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for Season 3. I think we’ll have a little more room there. But certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome. – Craig Mazin
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait and see if HBO manages to order a fourth season. We already know that once Craig Mazin finishes the storyline from The Last of Us Part II, he will be ready to step down from running the series. So, the future beyond a Part II storyline might be up for grabs if there’s enough attention to warrant HBO’s approval to keep this series going. Of course, without a third mainline installment of the video game franchise, just where the series would go would be a mystery to fans of the game IP.
