HBO’s The Last of Us co-creator all but confirms fourth season

HBO’s The Last of Us will likely run for as long as four seasons.

In an interview with Collider ahead of the May 25 second season finale, series co-creator Craig Mazin teased the future of the series. While the series has already been renewed for a third season, Mazin said one more season will be needed to fully cover the events of The Last of Us Part II game upon which Season 2 is partially based.

While noting that there’s a “decent chance” that Season 3 will be longer than its seven-episode predecessor, Mazin said “there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season.” Of course, HBO hasn’t officially renewed the series for a fourth season, which Mazin acknowledged. “Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome,” he said.

While Mazin has previously suggested that a fourth season might be in the cards, this is the most definitive he’s been on the subject. Without spoiling anything for those who haven’t played The Last of Us Part II, suffice it to say that the game is much longer and more narratively ambitious than the original game that inspired the TV series’ first season. What we can say is that Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Abby in Season 2, will play a more prominent role in the future of the show.

That said, it will be interesting to see how the show handles Joel (Pedro Pascal) going forward. The original game featured flashbacks throughout its 20-plus-hour story, allowing for scenes with Joel to appear all the way up until the end, even though he died at the beginning. However, Season 2 of the show featured all of those flashbacks already. It remains to be seen what new material might be written for Joel.

The B.C.-shot The Last of Us streams exclusively on Crave in Canada. A release window for Season 3 has not yet been confirmed, but presumably, it will also film in and around Vancouver.

Image credit: HBO

Source: Collider