craig mazin Archives

After getting a pretty impressive run of casting announcements – along with word that production was officially underway – for the second season of Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann's Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Ellie)-starring The Last of Us, the show's co-creators dropped some important intel on Season 2 during an exclusive interview with[...]

Earlier this month, Druckman offered an update on the second season during a press interview, sharing, "We've outlined all of Season 2, and we're ready to go as soon as the strike ends." Recent reports have the series being a top priority for HBO, post-WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes (along with House of the Dragon and[...]

If there's anyone who knows about letting the work speak for itself, it's The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin What might have helped is co-creator in Neil Druckmann, who not laid the foundation of the HBO series from the original Naughty Dog games, but also dealt with vitriol and backlash from 2020's Part II[...]

Considering how the biggest labor strike to hit the entertainment industry is pretty much shutting all major film & television productions, now might seem like an odd time to look ahead at what's ahead for Neil Druckmann & Craig Mazin's Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Bella)-starring The Last of Us. In a follow-up interview with Variety,[...]

If there's one thing that The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin is aware of since taking the job from day one, it's the incessant comparisons of the HBO series with co-creator & Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann to the PlayStation videogames starting with the 2013 original While all involved received a more proportionally positive[...]

You know you've made it as a pop culture institution when one of your stories touches on the greatest in the industry, as The Last of Us co-creator Craig Mazin found out after confirming a letter from legendary director Steven Spielberg regarding the HBO series' third episode "Long, Long Time" which primarily focused on the[...]

Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Craig Mazin, who co-created the series with Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann, revealed who else was in consideration, including Blade star Mahershala Ali and Matthew McConaughey. Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO The Last of Us: Would Matthew McConaughey Make a Good Joel? "I actually[...]

While he worked on both PlayStation games in 2013 and 2020, he returned to help creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann's vision to life for the HBO adaptation Santaolalla spoke with Bleeding Cool about Druckmann's original pitch, expanding narratives like the episode "Long, Long Time," inspirations, and the surge of new fans. Pedro[...]

Creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann spoke at a press conference to address the fallout and lingering questions from the season finale (via The Hollywood Reporter). Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO The Last of Us: Joel's Fateful Decision When it comes to Joel's rampage, "When you love something unconditionally, the logic[...]

Pedro Pascal's Joel Miller might have gone all out in HBO The Last of Us season finale "Look for the Light," but so did creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, pulling off the stealthiest of cameos only eagle-eyed fans might have caught The episode in question finds Joel making a fateful decision at a hospital[...]

Original Ellie actress Ashley Johnson on appearing in HBO's The Last of Us, Bella Ramsey, and the season finale/video game comparisons.

To say that creators Craig Mazin along with Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann captured the latter would be an understatement expanding the compelling narratives of its characters within the dystopian apocalypse With season one officially under wraps, the two opened up in a virtual press conference (via Variety) about the series' biggest complaints from fans[...]

Being able to take the essence of the game and bring it to life on the small screen with layered details that expand on the original source material is an aspect of the series that's not nearly celebrated enough. Pedro Pascal in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO The drama Part I lays out[...]

Directed by Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider) and written by creator Craig Mazin, "When We Are in Need" felt like it should be a two-parter before the season finale, with 10 episodes feeling like the right number from what I've seen so far. Scott Shepherd in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO Without diving further[...]

When HBO tasked creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog Visionary Neil Druckmann with compressing the events of the 2013 classic PlayStation game The Last of Us Part I into a nine-episode first season, the two went above and beyond to include the optional downloadable side adventure "Left Behind." The adventure served as a backstory and[...]

As Joel and Ellie get used to their temporary lodgings, given their continued cross-country journey to locate the Fireflies, we get to know the brothers more while Maria and Ellie get to know one another. Rutina Wesley in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO While it goes without saying the wonderful job creators Craig[...]

It's something creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann try to do in the HBO TV series adaptation expanding the duo's world around as they try to survive the Cordyceps pandemic Among those they meet are Henry and Sam, voiced respectively in the game by Brandon Scott and Nadji Jeter and played by[...]

Directed by Jeremy Webb and written by creator Craig Mazin, as both did the previous episode, "Endure and Survive," serves as a satisfying conclusion to the arc as the adventurers embark on the next leg of their journey The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO. Jeffrey Pierce & Melanie Lynskey in "The Last of Us."[...]

That's what henchmen are for pic.twitter.com/YwkmkwUdOm — Melanie Lynskey (@melanielynskey) February 8, 2023 For more, including Lynskey explaining her character, praise to creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, and more, you can read the thread below The next episode of The Last of Us premieres Friday on HBO before it returns to its normal time Sundays on[...]

When The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin was looking for someone to play season one villain in rebel faction leader Kathleen in the HBO series, he thought who better than Emmy-nominated actress and star of Yellowjackets Melanie Lynskey, which airs on the premium cable network rival Showtime The actress opened up about how she[...]

Another recreation from the games with some slight creative shifts is the ambush Joel and Ellie find themselves in, where we find a watershed moment for the latter character, which came much later in the game. Jeffrey Pierce in "The Last of Us." Image courtesy of Liane Hentscher/HBO Directed by Jeremy Webb (The Umbrella Academy and written[...]

The creator of the Last of Us, Craig Mazin, revealed to Variety how the song was selected. Oh, so all our hearts were breaking last night… 🍓 #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/upTiav0MLw — Spotify News (@SpotifyNews) January 30, 2023 "I knew that song needed to hit certain things about longing and aching and endlessly unrequited love," Mazin said[...]

While creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog visionary Neil Druckmann made it abundantly clear that season one of HBO's The Last of Us will cover the story of the first game while expanding its mythos in the process, the 2020 follow-up in Part II will be a whole other can of worms That's how Mazin[...]

It's something that creators Craig Mazin and Naughty Dog game visionary Neil Druckmann are painfully aware of Following the release of episode two, "Infected," the two spoke with Variety and broke down the episode, including starting the episode in Indonesia, how much the series will expand on the Cordyceps pandemic, spores versus tendrils, and fan[...]

When Craig Mazin signed on to co-create The Last of Us for HBO alongside Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, they tackled the Herculean task of compressing 15 hours' worth of content into a nine-episode season while expanding the PlayStation game's mythos Among the missed opportunities the duo had to scale back was Tess, played by Anna[...]

Already founded on a contentious and shaky foundation, we see the first real signs of Joel and Ellie bonding while Tess is focused on the task at hand. Image: HBO We get more deviations from the game as creators Craig Mazin (who wrote the episode "Infected") and Neil Druckmann (who directed it) compress a 15-hour game into[...]

Second, creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had plans for original voice actors Troy Baker, Ashley Johnson, and Jeffrey Pierce, who played Joel, Ellie, and Tommy in the games, in different roles for the live-action series With the HBO series leads Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Gabriel Luna respectively playing the roles, Mazin and Druckmann[...]

When Neil Druckmann recruited Craig Mazin to adapt Sony and Naughty Dog's The Last of Us to an HBO series, there were some obvious questions on how it would differentiate itself from its other zombie apocalypse contemporaries At the heart of the series are Joel and Ellie, played by Game of Thrones alum Pedro Pascal[...]

Would it be more action-oriented like the games, or would it expand more on the universe providing more character exposition? At the show's premiere, creators Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann (who was also the creative director for the ND titles) and star Pedro Pascal spoke to Variety about what the series allows them to do[...]

Premiering in tandem with the show on Sunday, January 15, the podcast will release new episodes each Sunday (nine episodes in total.) Source: HBO In The Last of Us Podcast, Baker sits down with series creators Craig Mazin (the creator of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (the writer/director of The Last of Us game franchise) for a scene-by-scene deep dive of[...]