It is a fact that The Last of Us It will have a second season on HBO and Max, and it won’t be the last. But one of the creators of the series has left the door open to produce spin offs based on secondary characters or plot lines not explored -or not deepened- in the original series.
In an interview with The Wrap, craig mazinone of those in charge of adapting The Last of Us to the small screen next to Neil Druckman, referred to the possibility of expanding the television universe beyond the story of Joel and Ellie taken from the Naughty Dog video games. And although he made it clear that it is not something that is in the plans today, he did not rule it out in the future.
He showrunner explained that the idea of carrying out spin offs It hasn’t been discussed yet, since all the energies are in the main narrative. However, he established a fairly clear position on this issue. “I’m not against the idea of other shows that can be inspired by these characters or that world”he asserted.
Mazin further said that The Last of Us It is such a big story that he does not know how long he will be linked to HBO productions. Even so, he remarked that, if an interesting proposal appears to be told separately, it is likely that there will not be a negative response to materialize it.
“I am burning one of the few precious decades I have left to tell this story. But in principle I have no problem with it. [los spin-offs]. And I’m sure Neil would be interested too. If something comes up that makes sense, then I don’t see why not. My great hope is that if there ever is such a thing, it will be done with as much care, respect and love as we are applying to this show now.”
Craig Mazin, on the possible spin-offs of ‘The Last of Us’.
Will HBO be encouraged to explore possible spin-offs of The Last of Us?
Beyond Mazin’s comments, producing new series based on The Last of Us it may not be that simple. In the first instance, because the original story extracted from video games is so strong and has generated such an impact on the public, that surely be very difficult to replicate with characters other than Joel and Ellie.
It’s true that there are some story arcs that, on the face of it, seem compelling enough to explore independently. The most obvious case is surely that of Bill and Frank. After all, the chapter dedicated to them has been one of the most celebrated in recent TV history.
However, this also raises a controversy. a possible spin-off of the characters played by Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett could be considered unnecessary. The third episode of The Last of Us He did a complete tour of the relationship between the two and expanded a narrative line that had barely been touched on in the video game. So trying to squeeze something more out of that story for the sake of audience satisfaction could backfire.
Perhaps it’s more appealing to explore what happened in the 20 years between the Cordyceps outbreak and what we saw in the original series. The rise of the Fireflies and their uprising against Phaedra, or the estrangement between Joel and his brother Tommy, are, a priori, narratives that could lead to other interesting original productions.
But, as one of the showrunners, the spin offs They are not an alternative that is on the table anytime soon.. Especially when the efforts are made to ensure that the adaptation of The Last of Us: Part II be as successful as the original. Also, it was already made clear that the story of the second game will require more than one season. And Craig Mazin himself stated that, in his opinion, it would take 4 seasons to properly address the narrative focused on the characters of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.