‘The Last Of Us’: Co-Creator Craig Mazin Provides Season 2 Status Update, Rules Out Another Bill & Frank Episode, Reveals Season 3 Plans

deadline.com:

Part 2 of two-part interview with The Last Of Us creator Craig Mazin about series’ 24 Emmy nominations, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and Season 2 of the hit HBO series.

HBO’s Emmy-nominated The Last Of Us was renewed in January, shortly after the adaptation of the popular PlayStation video game premiered, quickly becoming a pop culture phenom.

By May 1, when the writers strike began and script work was put on hold, the new season had already taken shape, The Last of Us co-creator/executive producer Craig Mazin told Deadline in an interview tied to the series’ big showing on Emmy nominations day, confirming the new writers who had joined him and fellow co-creator/EP, the game’s Neil Druckmann, for Season 2. “We got pretty far actually, we were doing great,” Mazin said. “Neil and I had been sitting and talking with Halley Gross, who also worked on the second game as a writer, and Bo Shim, the new writer that was in our little tiny room with us — obviously not a mini room because we’re greenlit the proper, we’re a real show, and because I hate that mini room stuff.” Ending the fraught practice of “mini rooms,” heavily employed by streamers for series ahead of greenlight or renewal, is among the list of demands the WGA has been pursuing in its contract negotiations with the studios.

Mazin also revealed that Episode 201 has been written. “We know what the whole season is, and I was actually able to get a write and submit the first episode right before the deadline hit,” he said. “So now I’m just walking around kind of brain-writing, I guess, which I don’t think is scabbing.