The Last of Us TV show creator reveals the certainty of a fourth season

The second season of The Last of Us is the latest definition of brilliant television storytelling. While the death of Pedro Pascal's Joel on the second season of The Last of Us extracted quite a passionate response from the audience at large, the storytelling genius of creator Craig Mazin shines forth brilliantly throughout the sophomore season.

Mazin sat down with Collider for a detailed interview that traced the importance of several events such as the relationship between Ellie and Joel and the creative departures between the Naughty Dog game franchise and The Last of Us show. Mazin also shed light on having considered a four season arc for the show's story to end satisfactorily. Here's everything that you need to know.

What did Craig Mazin say about a four season journey for The Last of Us?

During the course of the interview, Mazin was asked about the probability of a fourth season for The Last of Us and whether that would satisfactorily bring the story to a conclusion. Mazin explained:

"There are natural perforations in the narrative where you can go, “Okay, let’s tear it here.” I think there’s a decent chance that Season 3 will be longer than Season 2, just because the manner of that narrative and the opportunities it affords us are a little different. The thing about Joel’s death is that it’s so impactful. It’s such a narrative nuclear bomb that it’s hard to wander away from it. We can’t really take a break and move off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story. I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for Season 3. I think we’ll have a little more room there. But certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome."

Mazin reveals planning ahead of The Last of Us season 2 for a third season

Mazin was also asked if he planned ahead for a third and fourth season of the show, given the fact that the sophomore season wouldn't be able to conclude the story. The showrunner answered:

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"We always think ahead. We thought ahead to Season 3 and Season 4, to try to get as much visibility as we can, so that we don’t end up in a situation where we’re sitting down and getting into details for a season and then going, “Oh, man, if only we hadn’t had that person say that one line or be in that spot or wear that jacket, this would be so much cooler.” So, we really do try to think things through fundamentally. The challenge for our first season was, how do we tell this big story in a way that’s complete and doable within an amount of time and with the budget we have? And with this season, it was, “Okay, this source material goes way beyond one season.”

The Last of Us is exclusively available on HBO.

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