Creator of ‘beloved’ horror series dramatically quits ahead of season 3
A huge shake-up.
The future of The Last of Us is set to be very different after creator Neil Druckmann announced he will be stepping away from the series.
Based on the video game series of the same name, The Last of Us stars Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie in a post-apocalyptic world.
The acclaimed series, which returned for a second season earlier this year, follows groups of survivors 20 years after fungal virus infects large swathes of humanity.
While the show has a mixed reception among its biggest fans right now, critics still love the HBO series and the series is cited as an example of how to adapt video games into TV shows.
This transition from game to screen was helped by Druckmann, 46, who wrote and directed both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II before creating the TV show.
But whatever a third season looks like for the series, Druckmann won’t be involved after announcing his intention to step away from the hit zombie horror (via The Ankler).
Writers Druckmann and Halley Gross have both stepped down (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic for HBO)On the Instagram page for The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog, he said: ‘I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO.
‘With work completed on season two and before any meaningful work starts on season three, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects.’
He continued: ‘[This includes] writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative.
The Last of Us is set in a post-apocalyptic world (Picture: HBO) Druckmann also wrote the two Last of Us video games (Picture: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic for HBO/ Max)‘Co-creating the show has been a career highlight. It’s been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct and write on the last two seasons.’
On social media site X, fans speculated over whether the decision to step down has been made by Druckmann or engineered by HBO after mixed reactions to the story of season two.
@Sagkyo joked, ‘People who watched season 2 know this isn’t a shocker at all given how bad it was,’ while @TravDang accused the show of making ‘huge mistakes’ with some decisions.
Druckmann concluded by saying that he was ‘deeply thankful for the thoughtful approach and dedication the talented cast and crew took to adapting The Last of Us Part I and the continued adaptation of The Last of Us Part II’.
