Plus, one of the Season 2 episodes will be quite big in length.
The duo arrived at the number of episodes after careful consideration.
That means that Mazin and Druckmann envision the series running for at least three seasons, and possibly four.
(L-R) Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Craig Mazin and Neil DruckmannLiane Hentscher / HBO / Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images
And indeed, the story may require Season 4.
Later in the interview, Mazin sounded even more definitive.
Martins series; Martin is yet to finish planned sixth and seventh books.
Pedro Pascal as Joel in Season 2 of ‘The Last of Us’
As a fan, Im thrilled that there might be a thirdLast of Usgame.
Our focus is the two games, Druckmann said.
As part of that, Season 2 of the series will be revisiting events from Season 1.
We do tricks sometimes, we do some interesting things.
Of course, Mazin would not elaborate beyond reiterating that we will continue to do things our way.
Sometimes that means we do things just like the game, sometimes we do them differently, he said.
Its a good theory, once we put it in practice, who knows?
One thing is certain.
We are committed to delivering people great seasons and arcs, and HBO was amazing about this.
They let us pick that natural spot.
To echo what Craig is saying, there is no padding, everything that is in there is intentional.
I like generally hitting about an hour, its a great length, I love working in that format.
Deadline spoke with Mazin and Druckmann whenThe Last of Uswas one week into production on Season 2.
Since then, HBO has released twofirst-look imagesfrom the new season, featuring Pascal and Ramsey.
I love making the show.
The scope of this thing is at times absolutely massive.
And Season 3 promises to be just as big if not bigger.
I told my wife shes up here visiting I said Im actually happy and she was like what?
I think about the audience all the time.
You got to shake up the rust a little bit, Mazin said.
We did get to work with some of the new cast; theyre outstanding.
And the material that we shot and the new elements that weve included are terrific.
Im just incredibly optimistic about what were doing here, and its only just begun.
I think we are set to deliver something special.
Hopefully thats how it turns out.
