‘The Last of Us’ Showrunners Reveal What They Plan to Change in Season 2 (And It Won’t Be Bella Ramsey)

“The Last of Us” has finished airing its first season on HBO Max, fully adapting the first video game of the series, including its additional chapter. The series has already been renewed for a second season which will focus on the adaptation of “The Last of Us: Part II”, the sequel arriving on PlayStation 4 in 2020. Game creator Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin will return as showrunners.

In a meeting with the press, the two creatives made sure not to offer many details of that second season, but there are some things they wanted to clarify. Most importantly, changing Bella Ramsey as Ellie is completely out of the question.. Although the protagonist of the first season has earned critical and public acclaim, and has silenced many players who complained that she looked nothing like the video game version, there are still those who believe that even Ramsey has a childish physical play Ellie after the several year jump between “Part I” and “Part II”.

In this regard, Craig Mazin begins by joking that they put Ramsey “In an experimental process to accelerate growth. He smokes six packs of cigarettes a day and follows a diet of only whiskey and processed meat. When we start it will be ready”. Seriously, the creator of ‘Chernobyl’ wanted to settle any kind of speculation: “One of the things about the casting process that is quite difficult is that we invite people to join us in this process, and we know all the details and they don’t. They know what the game is about, but we know what we want to do. , from makeup and hair to the most important: the spirit and soul of the actor. We became adoptive parents to them on set. Especially with someone who was 17 when he joined us. He is now 19 , who among the The other is Ellie’s age in “The Last of Us: Part II”. To the people who said she doesn’t look alike, we said: it doesn’t matter. Look at her. See what happens. Look at her, we told them. And now it you know. I think there are still these intense anxiety attacks, and all I can tell people is that I too have a lot of anxiety about doing a good job. If something makes you anxious, it probably makes me too, the which means we are talking about it and thinking about it. We will present things but it will be different. It will be different because the first season was different. Sometimes it will be radically different, sometimes it will be practically no different. But it will be different and it will be something of him. It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the series that Neil and I want to do. And we will do it with Bella”.

Neil Druckmann adds that they won’t waste the enormous fortune they’ve had to find someone like Bella Ramsey: “When we made the game, I felt incredibly lucky. We got lucky with Ashley Johnson and I can’t imagine that version of Ellie being played by anyone else. Somehow we got lucky again with Bella. We are extremely lucky to to have been able to count on Bella throughout the season. The only way we would consider changing Bella is if she herself tells us that she no longer wants to work with us.. And even then I’m not sure we’d agree.”.

With a possible recast completely out of the equation, Mazin advances that they plan to approach adapting the second video game the same way they did with the first: “One of the things Neil and I have talked about over and over again is not to change the process, at least our process. Our process works. Our agreement process even if we do not agree, to find a way to reach an agreement. There are no vetoes. Nobody gets away with it. We also want to keep the writing process, which is kind of lonely and lonely. These things are important to us. Production-wise, I don’t know Neil, but I’ve learned a lot because this is the biggest production he’s ever been involved with.”. Druckmann jokes: “I knew 0% about doing streaks and now I know 5%”to which his partner adds: “He’s 5% and I’m about 12%, so we’re doing great. Thanks HBO. I’ve had the benefit of about 25 years of experience doing things, but scale is a very specific challenge and I’ve learned a lot from I think we’re going to be more efficient with our process, which means we’ll have more time to do more complicated things. But what’s really exciting to me is the fact that a lot of us, crew and cast, are coming back as veterans. We know where things are so we won’t get lost looking for the math room. That’s a comfort level you need to earn and I’m so excited to hear that.”.

More infected, less Canada

Mazin also wants to criticize himself and it is clear that there are mistakes he intends to polish for the second season: “It was a huge production. I want to stop saying that because I know next season is going to be much bigger and I don’t want to be scared. But it wasn’t easy. I think it would give us quite a high, but my goal is to do better next season.” season now.We’ve learned some lessons. Especially avoid those moments when you can clearly see it’s Canada, and we don’t want it to be Canada”. Neil Druckmann returns to look for the humorous side of the matter, remembering when Stephen King he pointed a moment in the third episode where they clearly weren’t within a few miles of Boston of the landscape they displayed: “It’s really nice that Stephen King points out it’s Canada. Thanks Stephen!”.

The little they wanted to release on the second season could please those who complained about the lack of presence of the infected in the first season: “I will say that even though we got the green light for a season, Neil and I already thought we couldn’t do a season without thinking about what might happen next. There’s more ‘The Last of Us’ to come. And I I think the balance is not just between episodes, but between seasons. It is very likely that there will be more infected later. And perhaps more types of infected” advances Craig Mazin.

The first season of ‘The Last of Us’ is available on HBO Max and the second will soon arrive on the streaming platform.