The Last of Us Season 2 Has One Scene Fans “Will Eat Up”

The creator of The Last of Us says there’s a scene in Season 2 that he knows fans “will eat up.” Neil Druckmann created The Last of Us video game franchise, and is also one of the creatives behind the hit HBO adaption. It’s been a long, hard road for TV shows and movies that attempt to adapt video games into those mediums, but Druckmann and HBO found instant success with The Last of Us. Fans of the games may have an idea of what to expect in Season 2, but Druckmann teased how The Last of Us may have some tricks up its sleeves.

Neil Druckmann was a guest on Variety‘s Strictly Business podcast, where he spoke about the pleasure he’s gotten from hearing from fans of The Last of Us video game and TV show. He also went into what has him excited about Season 2, with one scene in particulary standing out.

“What I’ve really enjoyed now is sometimes there are these people that have watched the show and then went and played the game and talked about, what a cool experience,” Druckmann said. “The game sometimes hints at stuff that we just don’t have time to get into the show that the game can, and vice versa. If you experience both, they’re both richer for it. And I love hearing that experience from people. They tell me, like, ‘I watch the show and then I play the game, and I really like how different the Bill sequence is, and that gave me this other insight into him.’ And there’s stuff in this season that I’m really excited about — stuff that we hinted at — one scene in particular comes to mind that I think fans of the game will eat up, because it really kind of tells you a lot of backstory of this important character that there wasn’t really a way for us to even do that in the game.”

The Last of Us creator reveals how HBO collaboration works

Druckmann also discussed how he works with The Last of Us head writer and executive producer Craig Mazin to break each season down. Druckmann was such a fan of Mazin’s work on HBO’s Chernobyl that he sought him out and they had lunch together. What started as Druckmann expressing his admiration for the work Mazin did on Chernobyl quickly turned to a shared appreciation for The Last of Us.

“The way we approach it, we start at the beginning of the season, and we break the season, and we look at the game. Our goal is to tell the best story possible,” Druckmann said. “And then our process is to just look at the content we have in the game and say, ‘OK, what are things that we both just overwhelmingly love and feel could be adapted as is?’ And we just put little check marks by those index cards to say, ‘OK, those things could just stay as is,’ and that becomes building blocks.”

Along with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey returning as Joel and Ellie, respectively, the seven-episode second season of The Last of Us stars series newcomers Kaitlyn Dever (No One Will Save You) as the revenge-seeking Abby, Merced (Madame Web) as Dina, Young Mazino (Beef) as Jesse, Danny Ramirez (Captain America: Brave New World) as Manny, Ariela Barer (Runaways) as Mel, Tati Gabrielle (Uncharted) as Nora, Wright (The Batman) as Isaac Dixon, and two-time Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara as an as-yet-unrevealed original character.