Warning: This text incorporates minor spoilers for HBO’s The Final of Us and The Final of Us Half II.
The primary season of HBO’s The Final of Us has formally ended, which implies it is time to flip the web page to Season 2.
The massively profitable HBO collection has been renewed for a second season that may adapt the story from Naughty Canine’s The Final of Us Half II. As followers of the sport know, The Final of Us Half II takes place 5 years after Half I, resulting in some dialogue surrounding if the present would half methods with Bella Ramsey and recast the position of Ellie for the time skip.
Talking at a press convention forward of the season finale, govt producer and Naughty Canine co-president Neil Druckmann put these considerations to relaxation, saying he and showrunner Craig Mazin wish to make Season 2 with Ramsey on the forefront.
“Once we made the sport, I felt we have been extremely fortunate,” Druckmann mentioned. “It was like lightning within the bottle that we discovered Ashley Johnson. I can not think about that model of Ellie being anyone else. After which in some way we obtained lightning within the bottle once more with Bella.
“We’re extraordinarily fortunate to have Bella and the stuff you noticed all through this complete season. The one manner we’d ever, ever think about recasting Bella is that if she mentioned, ‘I do not wish to work with you guys anymore.’ Even then, I am undecided we’d grant her that. We’d nonetheless pressure her to return again to Season 2.”
Mazin shared Druckman’s enthusiasm for Ramsey’s Ellie, and he additionally identified that “[Ramsey]’s 19 now, which — by the way in which — is the age of Ellie in The Final of Us Half II.”
The construction and story of Season 2 are a little bit of a thriller proper now. Mazin has beforehand mentioned that Half II is “greater than a season’s value of tv, for certain,” implying they may break up up the sequel into at the very least two seasons. Plus, the non-linear timeline of Half II’s storytelling might be offered in a number of methods.
Season 1 additionally routinely altered story beats from the sport, most notably drastically shaking up Invoice and Frank’s love story. Mazin is setting related expectations for Season 2, saying some moments might be “radically” completely different than what gamers skilled in The Final of Us Half II.
“[Season 2] might be completely different simply as this season was completely different,” Mazin mentioned. “Generally it will likely be completely different radically, and generally it [won’t] be pretty completely different in any respect, however it may be completely different. It is going to be its personal factor. It will not be precisely like the sport. It is going to be the present that Neil and I wish to make, however we’re making it with Bella.”
For extra, take a look at our The Final of Us season finale assessment, which we known as, “a thrillingly devoted adaptation of 1 video video games’ best endings, even when it doesn’t pack fairly the identical punch as the unique.”
Logan Plant is a contract author for IGN overlaying online game and leisure information. He has over six years of expertise within the gaming business with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Swap Participant Journal, and Lifewire. Discover him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
