Posted in: HBO, Max, TV | Tagged: pearl jam, the last of us

The Last of Us S02: Pearl Jam Dedicates "Future Days" to Joel & Ellie

During Pearl Jam's set at Ohana Festival, Eddie Vedder dedicated their performance of "Future Days" to Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us.

From the very foreboding exchange between Pedro Pascal's Joel and Catherine O'Hara's therapist-like character to our best look yet at Kaitlyn Dever's Abby, there was a lot to process in the official teaser for Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann's Pascal and Bella Ramsey (Ellie)-starring The Last of Us Season 2 that was released on "The Last of Us Day." In terms of the teaser itself, you can't go wrong having Pearl Jam's "Future Days" (from Lightning Bolt). Well, we got a better understanding of the personal connections between the video game/series and the band this weekend – with Druckmann checking in on social media to share that he was backstage at Ohana Festival for the band's performance. But it didn't end there because Eddie Vedder sang "Future Days" and dedicated the performance to Joel and Ellie.

"No biggie. Just hanging out backstage during the [Pearl Jam] performance at [Ohana Fest]…," Druckmann wrote as the caption to his Instagram post, which also included an image of the band performing from Druckmann's perspective. "Oh… and Ed [Eddie Vedder] dedicated 'Future Days' to Joel and Ellie. Excuse me while I go implode." Here's a look at the post:

Here's a look at the band's official Instagram account also sharing a look at the official Season 2 teaser – followed by a look at the band's setlist for the first night of Ohana Festival:

The Last of Us: Craig Mazin, Neil Druckmann on Season 2 & Beyond

Mazin on Season 2 Needing a "Breakpoint": "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 natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes."

Mazin on Possibly Needing Four Seasons to Tell Their Story: "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. 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."

Mazin on Possibly Expanding Character Story Arcs in Season 2: "Sometimes that means we do things just like the game, sometimes we do them differently. I think it'd be fair to say that since we are taking our time to dig into the story and expand certain areas, of course, there are going to be some things that are going to be expanded, but which characters and how we'll keep that secret."

Druckmann on Having "A Goal in Mind" with Season 2: "Our process was, we sketched out multiple seasons, then we did a deep dive on Season 2. To echo what Craig is saying, there is no padding; everything that is in there is intentional. There is always a goal in mind that we're heading towards, we are never meandering the sake of meandering, it's always to say something greater for these characters and the themes."

Mazin on Season 2 Having a "Quite Big" Episode: "Season 1 really was a 10-episode length season in hours. And certainly, in Season 2, there's an episode that is going to be again closer to — I don't know if I would say feature length, but quite big. I like generally hitting about an hour, it's a great length, I love working in that format. What we don't want to do is, say, a season of seven episodes where each episode is 90 minutes; part of why we're doing seven episodes is finding that nice line."

With Season 2 set to hit HBO & Max screens in 2025, Pascal, Ramsey, and O'Hara will be joined this season by Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Rutina Wesley as Maria, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, and Danny Ramirez as Manny. Behind the camera, Mazin and Druckmann will be joined by Peter Hoar (S01E03: "Long, Long Time") are Mark Mylod (HBO's Succession), Nina Lopez-Corrado (HBO's Perry Mason), Stephen Williams (HBO's Watchmen) and Kate Herron (Loki).

HBO's The Last of Us is written and executive-produced by Mazin and Druckmann. The series is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and is also executive-produced by Carolyn Strauss, Jacqueline Lesko, Cecil O'Connor, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Evan Wells. PlayStation Productions, Word Games, The Mighty Mint, and Naughty Dog serve as the production companies.

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