HBO’s The Final of Us live-action sequence is presently taking pictures its second season. Primarily based on the first appears to be like we’ve seen and the set pictures which were circulating on-line, the second season will possible cowl the earliest sections of Ellie’s revenge tour in The Final of Us Half II. From the sound of it, HBO could also be seeking to develop the second sport into not one, not even two, however probably three seasons.
In an interview with Deadline, showrunners Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin confirmed that the second season of the present will embody seven episodes, certainly one of which Mazin describes as “fairly huge” however not “function size.” That is two fewer episodes than season one, which lined the whole lot of the primary sport’s occasions in 9 episodes. This quantity got here after “cautious consideration” from the 2 after the choice was made to inform Half II’s story throughout a number of seasons.
“The story materials that we obtained from Half II of the sport is far more than the story materials that was within the first sport, so a part of what we needed to do from the beginning was work out how one can inform that story throughout seasons,” Mazin advised Deadline. “While you try this, you search for pure breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the pure breakpoint felt prefer it got here after seven episodes.”
Anybody who’s performed The Final of Us Half II is aware of what that “breakpoint” possible is. In the event that they’re adapting the sequel into a number of seasons, it could in all probability make sense to finish season 2 after Ellie’s three days in Seattle. This might imply that season 3 would focus solely on Abby, the second protagonist of the sport. However that’s not all of Half II, as there’s a 3rd “chapter” of that sport that would probably be expanded right into a fourth season. That construction is usually my hypothesis, however provided that Druckmann and Mazin count on the present to finish up a four-season sequence, it’s not out of the query.
“We don’t suppose that we’re going to have the ability to inform the story even inside two seasons [2 and 3] as a result of we’re taking our time and go down fascinating pathways which we did a bit of bit in Season 1 too,” Mazin mentioned. “We really feel prefer it’s nearly assuredly going to be the case that—so long as individuals hold watching and we are able to hold making extra tv—Season 3 can be considerably bigger. And certainly, the story might require Season 4.”
Nonetheless many seasons it goes, it feels like HBO’s adaptation gained’t be a 1:1 recreation of Half II, however Mazin advised Deadline that whereas the person seasons could also be shorter transferring ahead, that is to allow them to spend extra time telling The Final of Us Half II’s story over the subsequent few years, slightly than attempting to condense all of it into one season.
“We simply wish to put individuals’s minds relaxed that the concept that this season arising is a bit of bit shorter than the primary one will not be as a result of we’re taking much less time to inform the tales, it’s as a result of we wish to take extra time,” Mazin mentioned. “The story that we’re telling is way larger than the story of Season 1, there’s simply much more happening, it’s lots more durable to provide however we wish each episode to really feel like its personal blockbuster to be sincere with you.”
Whereas they don’t outright affirm a fourth season will occur, Mazin and Druckmann say they’ve the complete present mapped out as much as the conclusion of Half II. So it feels like they’re pretty sure that’s the plan, for now.
“Our course of was, we sketched out a number of seasons, then we did a deep dive on Season 2,” Druckmann mentioned. “To echo what Craig is saying, there isn’t any padding, all the things that’s in there’s intentional. There may be all the time a objective in thoughts that we’re heading in direction of, we’re by no means meandering for the sake of meandering, it’s all the time to say one thing larger for these characters and the themes.”
The Final of Us’ second season is ready to premiere on Max in 2025. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will reprise their roles as Joel and Ellie, with newcomers like Kaitlyn Dever as Abby filling out the forged. Jeffrey Wright has additionally joined the present’s forged as Isaac, having additionally performed the character in The Final of Us Half II.
