The episode count for HBO‘s The Last Of Us season two has been revealed – find out more below.
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Speaking to Deadline Hollywood, showrunner and director Craig Mazin has revealed the episode count for The Last Of Us season two, confirming that it will indeed be less than last year’s debut season.
Mazin explained that while season two will consist of seven episodes, whereas season one ran for nine, the length of episodes in season two will be “quite big”.
However, Mazin went on to explain that season two’s shorter episode count doesn’t mean the team are trimming its story in any way. Season two of The Last Of Us will only tell a portion of Naughty Dog‘s The Last Of Us Part II video game that it is based off, while season one captured the entirely of the first video game.
Mazin explained: “The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons. When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”
While further seasons past season two have yet to be confirmed, Mazin shared that he and Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann are planning for two more season to conclude the Last Of Us Part II storyline.
“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.”
Season two of HBO’s The Last Of Us will see the return of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel Miller and Ellie respectively. New cast mates being introduced for season two include Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby and Catherine O’Hara in an undisclosed role.
