Posted in: HBO, Max, Preview, TV | Tagged: HBO, max, preview, season 2, the last of us

The Last of Us Season 2 Ep. 1 Written/Submitted; S02 Mapped Out: Mazin

The Last of Us series co-creator Craig Mazin shared where things stood with Season 2 when it came to scripts & outlines ahead of the strikes.

Though the ongoing SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes will continue to derail television production until the AMPTP starts offering some fair new deals, that hasn't kept some news/updates regarding the second season of Neil Druckmann & Craig Mazin's Pedro Pascal (Joel) & Bella Ramsey (Bella)-starring The Last of Us from getting to the fans. One person, in particular, we have to thank is Mazin – who's done a fine job balancing what he can discuss about the HBO series while also driving home the point of what the union strikes are important to his and dozens of other shows. During an interview with EW's The Awardist podcast (which "was organized through his personal PR team in accordance with WGA guidelines") set to hit in full next week, shared a surprisingly promising update on where things stood with Season 2 – and how they've been keeping some below-the-line crew members employed during the strike for some early pre-production work.

"We were able to map out all of season 2. And I also wrote and submitted the script for the first episode and sent it in [to HBO] around 10:30 or 10:40 p.m. right before the midnight ["kajoomph" sound made] and the strike began." With the outline of the second season and the first episode's script in play, Mazin & Druckmann were able to keep some crew members employed – but it's something Mazin readily admits can't go on forever. "To the extent that we can keep anybody below the line working, that's fantastic," he explained. "I think it's becoming essentially a near certainty that we won't be able to start [filming] when we were hoping to start, which is upsetting. We are all raring to go. This is what we are born to do. This is how we not only choose to live our lives, but I believe [how we] are compelled to live our lives. Otherwise, why the hell would we do this insane job? I can assure you it's not for money."

In an interview with Variety from last month, Mazin discussed how a 2025 debut for the second season was still workable (but less & less so the longer the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes continue), confirmed that Season 3 will happen (as long as the viewers keep watching), and addressed the possibility of familiar faces returning in flashbacks (and why they have no plans to mess with that "beautiful" episode).

"The Last of Us" Could Still Make Its 2025 Delivery Date – For Now: "We had a little more flexibility, I think, than normally just because we had to wait a little bit longer any way to line up production with the weather. A lot of what we do is outside, and so we had a schedule that weirdly hasn't been immediately impacted. But we're getting pretty close; we can't keep our original start dates forever, obviously. If these strikes go much longer, we inevitably will have to push, and that hurts us, and it hurts the audience, and it hurts HBO. We all, everybody wants to get back to work; I think everybody that's actually doing the work, including the network people who are with us on the ground, I think everybody just wants to get this solved. So fingers crossed."

"The Last of Us" Season 3 Will Happen As Long As Viewers Keep Watching: "It's going to be more than one season. There's more story, so this show will not end with Season 2 unless people don't watch it, and we'll get canceled. Barring that, we will be doing some things exactly the way they were in the game. We're going to do other things that are in the game, and we're gonna do some things that are in the game, but we're gonna do them differently in our own method. No matter if you have played the game or not. You will be surprised as the season unfolds. We have some interesting twists and turns."

Could Melanie Lynskey, Storm Reid & Others Return via Flashbacks? "There's always a chance for everything. With us, you never know, and we obviously don't confine ourselves by timelines. People who are dead sometimes reappear, and sometimes we meet people that we didn't even know, and then we find out that they are somebody."

Mazin on Why There Won't Be Another Bill (Nick Offerman) & Frank (Murray Bartlett) Episode: "What you won't see is, for instance, another very special episode with Bill and Frank; we aren't going to milk it. When we do something that we think is beautiful, we let it be as it is and find other beautiful things to do."

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