HBO has officially renewed the post-apocalyptic drama starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for season 2, the network announced on Friday. Gamers can already guess where things are heading.
Season 1 adapts the main events of 2013's The Last of Us
video game. Twenty years after a zombie-like fungal plague has ravaged the
globe, Joel (Pascal), a survivor living in a militarized Boston quarantine
zone, is tasked by the Fireflies rebel group with smuggling out a young girl,
Ellie (Ramsey), to their allies on the outside.
The stakes are raised when Joel learns that his cargo is
miraculously immune to the fungal brain infection and may be the key to
cracking a vaccine. This unlikely pair is forced to traverse what's left of
America, dodging the mutated Infected, as well as human raiders, slavers, and
other unfriendly survivors.
Series writers and executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil
Druckmann have indicated that they plan to adapt the events of the second video
game, 2020's The Last of Us Part II, should the show get more seasons — which
now it will.
It's difficult to describe the plot of Part II without
spoiling it, so we'll just say there are two major twists that triggered such a
strong and immediate reaction from players that Druckmann, who developed both
games, received death threats.
"We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting
the games," Druckmann previously told The Hollywood Reporter. "We
won't run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn't end on a
cliffhanger."
The Last of Us was watched by 4.7 million viewers across
linear TV and HBO Max streaming the night the drama premiered on Jan. 15. By
the second day, that number rose to 10 million viewers. By the end of the week,
it became 18 million. The premiere episode has now surpassed 22 million viewers
domestically, by HBO's estimates.
Ratings for episode 2 started off even stronger. On the
night of its debut, The Last of Us tallied 5.7 million viewers, which marked a
22 percent increase from the first episode. That's the largest second-week
growth in HBO's history.
"I'm humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so
many people have tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie's
journey," Druckmann said in a statement. "The collaboration with
Craig Mazin, our incredible cast & crew, and HBO exceeded my already high
expectations. Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again
with season two! On behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog & PlayStation, thank
you!"
The original games were developed by studio Naughty Dog and
released on PlayStation platforms. PlayStation Productions now helps produce
the live-action adaptations of the company's library.
"I'm so grateful to Neil Druckmann and HBO for our
partnership, and I'm even more grateful to the millions of people who have
joined us on this journey," Mazin added. "The audience has given us
the chance to continue, and as a fan of the characters and world Neil and
Naughty Dog created, I couldn't be more ready to dive back in."