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

The Last of Us Season 2 Vibe? Think "The Empire Strikes Back": Mazin

The Last of Us co-showrunner Craig Mazin on how the second season of the HBO series has Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back vibes.

Whatever your feelings on Star Wars, the consensus among fans is The Empire Strikes Back (1980) is typically regarded as the best of the Skywalker Saga. Without much of a body of work to compare, The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin is content making that comparison for season two of the HBO series. Season one introduced Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as two survivors in a fungal apocalypse traveling across the country for a possible cure, facing threats from infected and humans alike. Mazin broke down how the series he co-created with Naughty Dog's Neil Druckmann, one of the original minds behind the video game franchise.

The Last of Us on Season Two Build Up, Pairs, and More

To catch up to the uninitiated, Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) introduced a band of new rebels who defend themselves from the Galactic Empire, threatening their existence with the powerful traveling space station known as the Death Star. As they secure a piece of intelligence, the rebels launch a counterattack and manage to destroy the Death Star. The Irwin Kirshner follow-up shows the ramifications of the actions as the Empire fully commits to taking down those responsible for the Death Star's destruction. "They aren't getting away with shit," Mazin told The Hollywood Reporter on how Joel and Ellie's actions in season one catch up to them in the coming second season.

"I think about that a lot — because I love The Empire Strikes Back, and I think everybody should," Mazin explained. "We love that one because the second act is the tough act. That's when everything is challenged, and characters go through these moments where they can't be who they used to be, but they're also not ready to be who they're supposed to be. There's a sense of feeling lost. And I love that," before adding, "We were filming in Alberta in the dead of winter, which was very Hoth (the setting of the 1980's film's first act)."

When it came to establishing Mazin's approach this season compared to when he and Druckmann started, "Making a first season of television, especially one of that size, is like building a plane in the air. We learned how to improve our process, which means basically more efficiency. Combined with more money from HBO, we could do a lot more," he said. "We certainly got much better at portraying the Infected. Our two core actors, Pedro and Bella, now occupy these characters completely. And we assembled this other group of actors who fit right in — maybe that's because [the new cast members] had seen the first season, so they were coming into a show they understood. Whereas in season one, there was no show to come into. Also, I learned about myself."

It was important to establish a line of communication with his directors, "The way I do this isn't really the way most people do things. ['Fargo' showrunner] Noah Hawley, who I'm about to have lunch with, is the guy who inspired me in the first place to think, 'Hey, what if I just wrote this all myself and I direct the first episode?' That meant I'm prepping the season by prepping the first episode. Then I work with the rest of the directors very closely," Mazin said. "I'm [on set] every day, and it's important to me to have that constant conversation with them. So I was able to share with our directors that were coming on, "Now that I've done a season of TV, this is how I work. Fair warning: I'm going to be there. And if you're not looking to collaborate like that, this is not the show for you."

As far as themes in The Last of Us, "There are a lot of duos. Our show seems to be live in this duopolistic world where you have Joel and Ellie, Henry and Sam, Ellie and Riley … It's always this interesting duopoly where everything gets shrunk down to these twosomes," Mazin said. "This season, we introduce more of these duopolies that I love — by the way, the word is 'pairs' or 'duos,' I don't know why I'm saying 'duopoly,' that's ridiculous. Watching Joel and Ellie is special in this season, but our community of Ellie and Dina [Isabela Merced] is special. Ellie and Jesse [Young Mazino] have this remarkable friendship. I can't wait for people to experience our world through these new twosomes."

For more, including how Mazin discusses tensions between Joel and Ellie, writing Dina, Ramsey's Ellie growing up, battles, future, and more, you can check out the complete interview. The Last of Us season two, which also stars Gabriel Luna, Rutina Wesley, Kaitlyn Dever, Danny Ramirez, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, Spencer Lord, Catherine O'Hara, Jeffrey Wright, Joe Pantoliano, Alanna Ubach, Ben Ahlers, Hettienne Park, Robert John Burke, and Noah Lamanna premieres April 13th on HBO and Max.

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