Joining Deadline’s Contenders TV event on Saturday The Last of Us co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and star Bella Ramsey expressed their initial surprise with how well Season 1 was received.
“I don’t think any of us expected it was going to be what it was,” Mazin said. “We were really proud of it, and our hope was that the fans of the games would be pleased and there would be a lot of new people who maybe don’t game but could experience the story.”
The second season of the HBO/Max postapocalyptic drama, set five years after the end of Season 1, sees Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Ramsey) at odds as they settle into the fortified city of Jackson, Wyoming.
Season 1 was based on the first video game, while second game’s story is too large to contain in a single season. “One of the challenges was its scope and its scale,” co-creator Druckmann said. “In Game 1, we were able to get that whole story into a single season; here we had to plan multiple seasons to think about the whole story and where it eventually goes.”
One of the biggest changes over the five-year difference is how Ellie has evolved. “In Season 2, I wanted to feel her heaviness a bit more,” Ramsey said. “I think she’s a little harder, she’s a bit more like Joel … but also she’s still the same person, like she still has the same sense of humor.”
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The trailer showed before the panel ended with Ellie angrily saying to Joel, “You swore,” alluding to a difficult relationship between the pair in Season 2. ”There’s definitely some doubt that Ellie has about that lie that Joel told her at the end of Season 1, so I think that plays a big part in the shift in the relationship,” Ramsey said. “It’s really difficult playing being cold to him … it’s sadder for sure. And it will continue to just get sadder and more cold … so look forward to that.”
Check back Monday for the panel video.
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