The executive producer and showrunner of HBO’s The Last of Us, Craig Mazin, recently spilled how many episodes the first season will have. Mazin confirmed that the first season will contain a total of 10 episodes. He also mentioned that out of those 10 episodes, five different directors will be taking the helm. The directors who have been confirmed so far are Kantemir Balagov, Jasmila Zbanic, and Ali Abbasi. This is most certainly not Mazin’s first time collaborating with HBO.
His last series, Chernobyl, was created by implementing the straight-to-series process. It’s not clear as to whether Mazin is a particular fan of this type of production or whether he has little say on the matter. However, The Last of Us series will share the same challenges that he faced when making Chernobyl. It’s much more complicated and harder to make any adjustments with a straight-to-series order. The order is sort of like competing in a race, once you start you can’t turn back until you have finished.
This makes Mazin’s prep work and vision all the more important for The Last of Us series to thrive. In an interview on the Scriptnotes podcast, he even stressed the necessity of laying some groundwork ahead of time when it comes to the production of a television series like The Last oOf Us. Mazin stated, “The rule of thumb for an average feature film, for a 40 million dollar movie, typically you’re looking at 3-4 months of prep. For a show like the one we have been doing, we’ve been prepping for many, many, many months. And we will continue to prep as new episodes come up." Mazin and his crew are currently filming the very first episode of the series in Alberta, Canada, with production expected to continue until June 2022.
The synopsis for The Last of Us reads, “The story takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse across the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.” Mazin also revealed that “the writing for the first 3 episodes, and to some extent the first four episodes, is kinda done.” As far as mapping out almost half of the series, The Last of Us seems to be further along than many would have assumed.
He did admit to having some financial setbacks, but overall, Mazin feels the budget will suffice. Fans of the video game will be happy to hear that Mazin is working in collaboration with Neil Druckmann, the writer of both the game and its sequel. Although the series will at least have some influence from the game incorporated into the series, many components will shift and change.
Video game adaptations have a rough history of turning out poorly, both from a box office perspective and in terms of how they are received by fans. However, the involvement of HBO and Mazin has given fans of The Last of Us reason to be excited about the series, and that's not even mentioning the talented cast led by Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey
The Last of Us has yet to announce a release date.
Source: Scriptnotes