The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann was very heavily involved with the first season of HBO’s adaptation of the show, but took a more backseat approach for Season 2 as showrunner Craig Mazin took the reins. Shortly after Season 2 aired, Druckmann announced that he would be stepping back from the series and going back to focusing on games, namely Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Naughty Dog’s next major game.
According to a new interview with Variety, however, it looks like Druckmann will still be somewhat involved in HBO’s The Last of Us Season 3. While he may not be as hands-on as before, he’ll still have some input on the show’s direction and make sure that it stays faithful to the source material.
“As much as I miss getting into the weeds and working on the effects shots and giving script notes and really getting into the details of it, I’m trying to just shepherd it,” Druckmann says. “My hope for Season 3, and what I’d like to I think I can best contribute to it, is to make sure it’s as deeply faithful as Season 1 was. Because I feel like that is the gold standard for this kind of adaptation, while enjoying all these beautiful expansions that happen naturally with the rest of the team and how they’re working on Season 3. So that is where my involvement will stay is at that very, very high level.”
Interestingly enough, he says “as deeply faithful as Season 1 was” and not Seasons 1 and 2. Perhaps Druckmann is aware of how much chaos the deviations in Season 2 caused for the story. Either way, it bodes well that he hopes to keep Season 3 faithful to the source material. I wasn’t a fan of the multitude of changes implemented in Season 2, with some of them straight up leading to character assassination in my view, so here’s hoping that Season 3 can turn things around.
The Last of Us is now available for streaming on HBO Max.
