[This story contains major spoilers from season two of The Last of Us.]
While celebrating the second season of The Last of Us at an Emmys FYC event on Tuesday, co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann offered up a few details about what’s in store for season three.
The duo took part in two panels at the event, the first alongside cinematographer Ksenia Sereda, costume designer Ann Foley, editor Timothy Good, composer David Fleming, production designer Don Macaulay and visual effects supervisor Alex Wang. During that conversation, Mazin mused how they build these extensive, meticulous sets and “we tend to light things on fire, smash them, tear them down” — something they may change for season three.
“It’s more of a water season than a fire season,” Druckmann revealed, as Mazin confirmed, “It’s a wetter season than a hotter season.”
Later, following a screening of the season’s second episode, Mazin and Druckmann returned with stars Bella Ramsey, Isabela Merced, Gabriel Luna and Young Mazino, with Kaitlyn Dever appearing virtually as she’s working on another project in Australia. Rob McElhenney, who repeatedly declared The Last of Us “my favorite show on television,” moderated the conversation.
Druckmann discussed how he’d been involved in several failed attempts to adapt his video game and “I think it was good to go on that journey to end up at HBO, end up at a place that leaned into those controversial decisions, I guess,” like killing off Pedro Pascal‘s character Joel early in the second season. “But the decisions are just what the story required, and even now, it’s like I can’t believe that they let us structure the series in this way. Meaning like we just ended season two, and season three is going to be starring — spoiler alert — Kaitlyn.”
“What?!” Dever jokingly reacted, as McElhenney teased, “Had you closed your deal yet? You just got a ton of leverage.”
Druckmann continued, “I was sure that they wouldn’t let us do this when we started adapting this, but they’ve leaned into what makes, I believe, the story special. And allowed us not only the time but the creative freedom to be able to take these swings, and I think the audience really appreciates that.”
Dever joined the second season as Abby, a divisive character in the video games who brutally murders Pascal’s beloved character. It had been speculated that the third season would shift to tell Abby’s story, but had not yet been explicitly confirmed.
Neil Druckmann, Young Mazino, Isabela Merced, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Craig Mazin and Rob McElhenney at HBO Max’s The Last of Us FYC event.
Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
The actress said taking part in the conversation, even remotely, “makes me so happy to be a part of this family and to get to look forward to the journey we have ahead too.” Dever added that “the controversy surrounding Abby was never really a concern for me, just given my first meeting with Craig and Neil and how wonderful they are and how talented they are. Getting on set, I’ve never felt so carried on a set in my life.”
As McElhenney jokingly berated Dever for killing Pascal — “You killed America’s Sweetheart! You brutally murdered America’s Sweetheart with a golf club” — Mazin explained the decision, noting, “To invest all this time and then go away for a long time and then come back, it’s even more dangerous to do what we did, and that’s why I thought it should be done, because it doesn’t happen enough.”
“I think plot armor is a real problem and in a show where we try and keep things as grounded as possible, and we want people to feel in real danger, then yes, sometimes the people that we can’t imagine dying die,” he continued. “Because, for me, this is not a show about revenge, it’s a show about grief. Well, how are we supposed to grieve if nobody we truly, truly are invested in dies?”
