Posted in: HBO, TV | Tagged: Bella Ramsey, craig mazin, neil druckmann, Pedro Pascal, the last of us

The Last of Us: Craig Mazin on Casting Abby, How Long Series Could Run

HBO's The Last of Us' Craig Mazin on "Maybe" finding their Abby, dealing with fan backlash, how long they see the series running & more.

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 from toxic fans. Both made conscious decisions to take advantage of the TV format to expand on the elements of the game that barely scratched the surface in the Pedro Pascal & Bella Ramsey-starred series, like Bill's (Nick Offerman) and Frank's (Murray Bartlett) story in the episode "Long, Long Time." With the conclusion of the first season, Mazin and Druckmann are already in development of season two until production was suspended due to the ongoing WGA & SAG-AFTRA strikes. Mazin provided some updates on what's transpired, including teasing TLOU's future from season two on.

As far as anticipating the eventual backlash from season two, "I dispute the premise. I'm very studiously avoiding confirming anything even through a passive acceptance of a question," Mazin told The Hollywood Reporter. "Anybody that has played the game and then watched the first season knows that sometimes we do exactly what happened to the game, and sometimes we do something wildly different. We also don't necessarily do things in the same order or at the same time. In our first season, we repeatedly did things that were upsetting — everyone died except Joel and Ellie. People understood watching the show that this was a story where people aren't safe. If you are planning on running a series for as long as it can, you put plot armor [slang for characters who repeatedly and inexplicably avoid harm or misfortune] on your main characters until such time the actors are asking for too much money or their Q score goes down, or the ratings go down, and then you kill them. That's not what we do or what HBO does. So anyone can die at any moment, as far as I'm concerned."

Mazin continued, "As for backlash, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between emotion because they care and backlash. But neither I nor Neil make things with that in mind. There are also times during the season where we think they're probably gonna be annoyed with us, but later they'll get it. Like until you saw Ellie and Joel properly fuse, a lot of viewers were like, 'Uh, she's annoying.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, exactly! She's annoying, and you don't like her — just like Joel finds her annoying and doesn't like her.' Until he does, and would now kill everyone for her, just like how you feel at the end, because that's how good Bella is."

When it came to how many more seasons will be planned, "We've laid out our vision to HBO for how this series should lay out across not one season, but multiple seasons," Mazin said. For Part II, both admitted the events will take more than one season. "I was aware that I mentioned that. You never know. It can end up being three or five. But four seems like a good number. Some seasons, because of the story we're telling, will need fewer episodes, and some will need more. The best news is the audience wants more. We will not indulge a desire for more simply to make them happier when they hear how many episodes are announced. And if they don't like how many episodes are in a season because they want more, well, OK. But when all is said and done, I think the wisdom of how we lay it out will hopefully be clear. I don't know if any season will actually have the same amount of episodes. But, whatever, the number's not important. What's important is when they get to the end of the season, they're like, 'That was a good season.'"

When asked if they found their Abby, Mazin coyly responded, "Maybe. (Laughs.) The strike stopped us in our tracks. Things were in process. Look, Abby was the first role that we wanted to tackle. We've got a pretty good track record of making major cast announcements and people going, 'Really?' which will probably continue. So people may disagree, but I think we got it right so far, and the audience seems to feel we got it right, and the Academy seems to feel we got it right." For more, including how Mazin felt TLOU was marketed, his thoughts on both strikes, and reflections on season one, you can check out the interview here.

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