Popular HBO series The Last of Us is set to undergo several notable changes ahead of its third season. Along with the absence of Pedro Pascal’s character Joel Miller, who died in Season 2, co-creator Neil Druckmann and co-writer Halley Gross are set to take on a new project.
This means showrunner and co-writer Craig Mazin is left as the lone writer for Season 3, and he spoke about where things stand with the new season of The Last of Us during a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
Craig Mazin Gives an Update on Writing for Season 3 of ‘The Last of Us’
Mazin spoke at length about how his typical writing process has gone for the previous seasons of the hit series. He also described his unique method for writing The Last of Us Season 3, admitting that it’s “crazy” and he doesn’t “necessarily recommend” the approach for others.
“This is kind of my favorite time. It’s very quiet. It’s just sitting here with my wonderful ergonomic keyboard and clacking away,” Mazin said. “The pages are happening, and I get to be a monk for a while, which I love, and I just write. It’s the purest form of what I do.
“And then in just a couple of months or so, that happy time will start to be less quiet because we begin a very long prep period while I’m still writing, and then we begin to shoot while I’m still writing. In seasons one and two, I finished writing about six weeks before we started shooting the last episode. I don’t necessarily recommend this method other than to say this works for me, but it is insane.”
With Mazin now the lone remaining writer left, while Druckmann and Gross are working on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, he told THR that the process hasn’t been a drastic change for him, even in their absence.
“I don’t think it is [changing], in the sense that I was pretty much a monk just writing in a room by myself for most of the time regardless,” Mazin continued. “And I’ve gotten so much out of talking with them over the course of seasons one and two. When we made season two, we really were thinking about what comes after because you can’t really tell half of that story without thinking about what the whole story should be.”
“So we really did get that work in. Neil’s always had a full-time job running Naughty Dog, so it’s always been me up in Canada [where the production is], and, ultimately, things are pretty much going to proceed as usual.”
It sounds as though Mazin has things right where he likes them in his “crazy” method to writing the series. For The Last of Us fans, that’s good news, as Pascal’s departure and rumors of a shift in the story’s focus to Abby, the character played by Kaitlyn Dever, have become a significant talking point.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Saw a Significant Slip in Fan Reviews
Following a Season 1 performance that left critics and fans alike heaping praise on the show, the reactions shifted for fans in Season 2. This appeared to mostly come after Pascal’s character, Joel, was killed off early in the second season.
After Season 1 drew in a stellar 96 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, along with an 86 percent fan rating based on more than 10,000 reviews, the Season 2 feedback from fans stood out.
Although The Last of Us Season 2 earned an impressive mark of 91 percent from critics, the fan score plummeted to 37 percent based on over 5,000 verified reviews.
This sets the stage for Season 3, which leaves Mazin with the tall task of continuing the strong video game adaptation, while getting some fans back on board after an up-and-down Season 2 in terms of feedback.
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