The renewal of The Last of Us for a second season does not come as a shock, but it is certainly a win for HBO.
The post-apocalyptic drama with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey has been a huge success right from the start. On Rotten Tomatoes, 97 percent of the critics who reviewed the series liked it. Its first episode earlier this month was HBO’s second-most-watched series premiere in the past ten years, and since then, 22 million people have watched it on all platforms. The overnight ratings for last Sunday’s second episode were up 22% from the first episode on both HBO and HBO Max.
Neil Druckmann, the show’s executive producer, said, “I’m humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so many people have watched and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’s journey.” “The work we did together with Craig Mazin, our amazing cast and crew, and HBO was even better than I had hoped. Now, we’re thrilled to be able to do it all over again with season two!”
The creative plan for season two isn’t set in stone yet. Still, showrunners Druckmann and Mazin hinted in a recent cover story in The Hollywood Reporter that the show wouldn’t waste time before getting into the account of The Last of Us Part II videogame (“I don’t like filler,” said Mazin).
Mazin said about the renewal, “I’m so thankful to Neil Druckmann and HBO for our partnership, and I’m even more thankful to the millions of people who have been with us on this journey.” “The fans gave us a chance to keep going, and as a fan of the characters and world that Neil and Naughty Dog made, I couldn’t be more excited to jump back in.”
In The Last of Us, Pascal and Ramsey play a smuggler who is moving a teenage girl across a landscape after the end of the world. It’s based on NaughtyDog’s 2013 PlayStation game.
The renewal comes before Today’s third episode, which critics have said is one of the best of the season so far.
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