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‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Will Have ‘A Lot More Infected,’ Creators Address Complaints About Lack of Action

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
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variety.com

‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Will Have ‘A Lot More Infected,’ Creators Address Complaints About Lack of Action

'The Last of Us' creators tease more infected and address the complaints about the lack of action in Season 1
variety.com variety.com

​
For a show about a post-apocalyptic world torn apart by a deadly fungus that creates zombie-like creatures, there weren’t a whole lot of zombies in the final episodes of “The Last of Us.” Series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have seen the complaints about the infrequent zombie mayhem in the HBO drama series, but fans can rest assured that Season 2 will have “a lot more infected.”

“Ultimately, we generally stressed the power of relationships and trying to find significance within moments of action,” Mazin told reporters during a virtual press conference for “The Last of Us” last week. “And so there may be less action than some people wanted because we couldn’t necessarily find significance for quite a bit of it, or [there was] concern that it would be repetitive. After all, you’re not playing it, you’re watching it. And although a lot of people do like to watch gameplay, it needs to be a little more focused and purposeful when we’re putting it on TV.”


The Season 1 finale featured some shocking moments of violence from Joel (Pedro Pascal), as he and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) arrive at the hospital in Salt Lake City and are captured by Fireflies. Their leader Marlene (Merle Dandridge) explains that it’s possible to synthesize a cordyceps cure from Ellie’s immunity, except it requires fatal brain surgery. Unable to accept the loss of his pseudo-daughter, Joel goes on a massacre, killing every soldier, the doctor about to perform Ellie’s surgery and Marlene. He drives Ellie back to the Jackson settlement and lies to her about what happened. The final shot ends on Ellie — who desperately wanted their perilous journey and tragic losses to mean something — unsure whether or not to believe Joel.

The original “The Last of Us” video game let players shoot, stab, dismember and bludgeon a variety of humans and infected clickers with a host of weapons — including, but not limited, to shotguns, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, baseball bats, bombs and bricks. It was lauded for its long levels filled with intense, visceral gameplay and a deeply emotional plot. “The Last of Us” video game’s story has translated well to the HBO series, but some viewers had been hoping for more than just short bursts of action scenes spread across several episodes.

“Part of the adaptation process is trying to figure out how to take source material that was built around gameplay, and port it over to a medium that is passive,” Mazin said. “A lot of the gameplay is centered on [non-playable characters] that you have to get around, avoid, stealth kill or just confront head on. The NPCs were either raiders, cannibals, FEDRA or the infected. So there’s a lot of fighting. I don’t know what your ultimate kill count is on a typical run of ‘The Last of Us,’ but it’s in the triple digits for sure.”

“It’s much higher than we would want for the show,” Druckmann added. As the co-director and writer of the original “Last of Us” game, he injected a healthy dose of action set pieces and heart-stopping fights with infected clickers to keep gamers constantly engaged. For the TV show, if an action scene “doesn’t move character, and it was only there for spectacle, it was an easy cut for us.”

The show was renewed at the end of January, after only a few episodes had aired, and the ratings for the show — a huge hit for HBO out of the gate — have grown throughout the season. “There is more ‘The Last of Us’ to come,” Mazin teased. “It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later. And perhaps different kinds.”
Click to expand...
 
E

EN250

Member
Woggleman said:
They will never admit it but I believe that HBO had less faith in this show than they will cop to so certain things had to be cut. Now they have the resources they will need.
Click to expand...
I think it's that way because it's cheaper to produce, long talks and walks, less "spectacle" and fights, it paid off in the end, since the only complain is the lack of infected

Wanna know if Season 2 will be starting with the time skip to adult Ellie or they'll add stuff to the series?
Also who's gonna play the roided girl, or it's just gonna be a less beefed up version in the show? Could work since Joel is way more tame than the original version and everyone else is "weaker" for a lack of a better term
 
CrankyJay™

CrankyJay™

Member
EN250 said:
I think it's that way because it's cheaper to produce, long talks and walks, less "spectacle" and fights, it paid off in the end, since the only complain is the lack of infected

Wanna know if Season 2 will be starting with the time skip to adult Ellie or they'll add stuff to the series?
Also who's gonna play the roided girl, or it's just gonna be a less beefed up version in the show? Could work since Joel is way more tame than the original version and everyone else is "weaker" for a lack of a better term
Click to expand...
I don’t see how it could be as jacked in real life, her proportions seemed ridiculously off in the game.
 
CrankyJay™

CrankyJay™

Member
mhirano said:
Brazilian MMA fighter Gabi Garcia (she is a cis woman before anyone asks)
9D9Va9z.jpg
Click to expand...
How many are this jacked and can act though? But I see your point. Sorta. But this same person would need to be not jacked if we’re going to get flashbacks that explain some of Abby’s motivations.
 
xion4360

xion4360

Member
I think it was perfectly fine to not have too many infected.. I mean why is that necessary all the time in a tv show? would that not get repetitive like here is the obligatory infected fight that does nothing for the plot. The times when infected did show up it was really awesome and impactful. No need to overdo it. But sure, plenty of opportunities for part 2 to have more infected scenes I just hope the core of it continues to be about the characters and not fighting infected.
 
E

EN250

Member
CrankyJay™ said:
I don’t see how it could be as jacked in real life, her proportions seemed ridiculously off in the game.
Click to expand...
Prosthetics or CGI like in super hero movies, foam muscle body to make her look jacked enough
mhirano said:
Brazilian MMA fighter Gabi Garcia (she is a cis woman before anyone ask)
9D9Va9z.jpg
Click to expand...

Thought roided girl was even bigger but with a superposed face with the facial characteristics of a model, that's why something feel off with her appearance, but regardless, does this fighter know how to act and since she's brazilian, can she achieve an "american english tone" without her native language getting in the way?

To this day I think I never saw a really jacked woman acting anywhere :goog_grinning_sweat:
 
Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Woggleman said:
They will never admit it but I believe that HBO had less faith in this show than they will cop to so certain things had to be cut. Now they have the resources they will need.
Click to expand...
They still spent $100 million this season, making it one of the most expensive TV shows season ever for 9 episodes.

The reality is that nobody has an infinite budget, and they gotta pick their battles. Doing high-quality infected with realistic prosthetics is not easy. Glad that they cut-down the number of Infected and infected encounters rather than opting for cheap CGI or low-quality makeup.
 
Oddvintagechap

Oddvintagechap

Banned
Woggleman said:
They will never admit it but I believe that HBO had less faith in this show than they will cop to so certain things had to be cut. Now they have the resources they will need.
Click to expand...
Definitely. Could have been some extensive scenes that don’t serve the story, some set pieces and “gameplay” action scenes. Those would require full trust the show would be successful tho. Some of these scenes would be more expensive then some whole episodes. Season Two will be crazy.
 
ShadowNate

ShadowNate

Member
I am more interested in spreading the content out and better build their characters, moving away from "hey a new character. oh they are dead now" which ended up being a pattern for season one.

And you know, delaying the other thing.
 
xrnzaaas

xrnzaaas

Member
The lack of infected in the show was very noticeable. I mean why bother developing a vaccine anyway? Just gear up against raiders.

Heisenberg007 said:
They still spent $100 million this season, making it one of the most expensive TV shows season ever for 9 episodes.

The reality is that nobody has an infinite budget, and they gotta pick their battles. Doing high-quality infected with realistic prosthetics is not easy. Glad that they cut-down the number of Infected and infected encounters rather than opting for cheap CGI or low-quality makeup.
Click to expand...
For me the problem here is that this not look like a 100 million dollar show. Even the post-apocalyptic environments don't look that good. Watching something like season 1 of Game of Thrones I could see where all the money went.
 
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Perrott

Perrott

Member
Heisenberg007 said:
They still spent $100 million this season, making it one of the most expensive TV shows season ever for 9 episodes.

The reality is that nobody has an infinite budget, and they gotta pick their battles. Doing high-quality infected with realistic prosthetics is not easy. Glad that they cut-down the number of Infected and infected encounters rather than opting for cheap CGI or low-quality makeup.
Click to expand...
It wasn't a matter of money, it simply was a creative decision to not include filler or action without any purpose behind it.

Just look at how each single time the infected show up throughout the show, they act as the catalysts for major plot points or character growth:
-In Episode 1, well, it is basically the day of the outbreak. The infected cause the chaos that culminates with the military killing Joel's daughter, a turning point in his character arc.
-In Episode 2, both Ellie and Tess are bitten by clickers at the museum. The lack of propagation of the virus in her organism convinces Tess that the girl has some sort of cure in her, so as her dying wish she makes Joel promise her that he'll complete the job and deliver Ellie to the Fireflies.
-In Episode 3, when Ellie descends into the basement of the gas station, observes the trapped infected, kills him and then emerges out of the hole in the ground... its all a metaphor for a self-growth moment of her.
-In Episode 5, the massive action setpiece serves the purpose of getting Sam infected. Ellie's inability to heal him, as well as the fact that both brothers end up dead by the next morning because of it, marks another key point for her character development.
-In Episode 7, both Ellie and Riley get infected. This is where she finds out of her immunity, as her best friend and lover turns into an infected and she doesn't. Again, character development.
-In Episode 9, when we see Anna give birth to Ellie just as she was bitten by an infected, that's literally the explanation for Ellie's future immunity. Major plot point.

As Neil said, the infected are plot devices that have to drive the characters or the story forward in major ways, and that's what they were there for throughout Season 1 of the show. Giving them screentime just for the sake of having a random action setpiece wouldn't make any sense, and I'm grateful that they didn't.
 
Braag

Braag

Member
EN250 said:
Prosthetics or CGI like in super hero movies, foam muscle body to make her look jacked enough


Thought roided girl was even bigger but with a superposed face with the facial characteristics of a model, that's why something feel off with her appearance, but regardless, does this fighter know how to act and since she's brazilian, can she achieve an "american english tone" without her native language getting in the way?

To this day I think I never saw a really jacked woman acting anywhere :goog_grinning_sweat:
Click to expand...

Not exactly jacked but definitely big and powerful, Gina Carano could be a decent Abby, but she got cancelled last I heard..
 
Spyxos

Spyxos

Member
I haven't seen the last episode now but there were already massively missing zombies in this series.
 
Heisenberg007

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
ew.com

'The Last of Us' creators address season 2 time-jump complaints over Bella Ramsey

'The Last of Us' creators want to put something to rest: No, they are not recasting Bella Ramsey for season 2 despite comments about her age and the time-jump.
ew.com ew.com

Nice! I was worried about this, too, but if Craig and Neil think they can make it work, they can make it work. I trust them with this completely.


The Last of Us showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann want to address one element of the fandom discourse that seems to be on their mind of late. "Let's put this thing to rest," Druckmann firmly stated during a virtual press conference that played out over Zoom ahead of the season finale.
Apparently, there's a swath of The Last of Us viewers who assumed the show's star Bella Ramsey would be recast in season 2 and beyond. The belief was based on the fact that season 1 tackled the events of 2013's The Last of Us video game and season 2 will at least start adapting the events of 2020's The Last of Us Part II. (Who knows how many seasons it will take to do the whole thing.) There's a five-year time-jump in between the games, during which Ellie visibly changes from 14 to 19 years old.

Mazin and Druckmann are adamantly against the idea of recasting Ramsey in season 2. When asked about Ramsey in relation to the games' time-jump, they pointed out that Ramsey is in fact 19 years old now, the same age of Ellie in Part II, which also means she will be even older by the time cameras start rolling on season 2.

"One of the things about the casting process that's tough is that we invite people to join us on this process, and we know everything [about the secrets of the production] and nobody else knows anything except what they know, which is the game," Mazin explained. "We know what we're gonna do in terms of costume and makeup and hair, but more importantly, we also know the spirit and soul of the actor."

When Ramsey joined the production at age 17, Mazin remembered some fans complaining about how she didn't look like the character from the games. "I'm like, 'It doesn't matter. Watch! Just watch what happens.' And now they know," he said. "I think there is still this constant drumbeat of anxiety. All I can say to people is, I have so much anxiety myself about doing a good job on this. Just know I am also very anxious. If you're anxious about something, I'm probably anxious about it, which means we're talking about it and thinking about it."

Mazin also confirmed season 2 "will be different" from Part II. "It will be different just as this season was different [from the first game]," he continued. "Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be [barely] different at all. But it's going to be different and it will be its own thing. It won't be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make. But we are making it with Bella."

Druckmann also spoke up on the matter. "When we made the game, I felt we were incredibly lucky. It was like lightning in the bottle that we found Ashley Johnson and I can't imagine that version of Ellie being anybody else," he said of the actress who originated the role. "And then somehow we got lightning in the bottle again with Bella."

"The only way we would ever, ever consider re-casting Bella is if she said, 'I don't want to work with you guys anymore,'" he added. "And even then, we're not sure we would grant her that. We might still force her to come back to season 2."
 
V1LÆM

V1LÆM

Gold Member
the lack of "zombies" didn't bother me. in fact i liked that they were kinda just there in the background and the focus is on joel and ellies story.

season 2 should, imo, have the same amount or even less zombies. there is a lot more story to tell in part 2 and we don't need to waste it on zombies.

Heisenberg007 said:
ew.com

'The Last of Us' creators address season 2 time-jump complaints over Bella Ramsey

'The Last of Us' creators want to put something to rest: No, they are not recasting Bella Ramsey for season 2 despite comments about her age and the time-jump.
ew.com ew.com

Nice! I was worried about this, too, but if Craig and Neil think they can make it work, they can make it work. I trust them with this completely.


The Last of Us showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann want to address one element of the fandom discourse that seems to be on their mind of late. "Let's put this thing to rest," Druckmann firmly stated during a virtual press conference that played out over Zoom ahead of the season finale.
Apparently, there's a swath of The Last of Us viewers who assumed the show's star Bella Ramsey would be recast in season 2 and beyond. The belief was based on the fact that season 1 tackled the events of 2013's The Last of Us video game and season 2 will at least start adapting the events of 2020's The Last of Us Part II. (Who knows how many seasons it will take to do the whole thing.) There's a five-year time-jump in between the games, during which Ellie visibly changes from 14 to 19 years old.

Mazin and Druckmann are adamantly against the idea of recasting Ramsey in season 2. When asked about Ramsey in relation to the games' time-jump, they pointed out that Ramsey is in fact 19 years old now, the same age of Ellie in Part II, which also means she will be even older by the time cameras start rolling on season 2.

"One of the things about the casting process that's tough is that we invite people to join us on this process, and we know everything [about the secrets of the production] and nobody else knows anything except what they know, which is the game," Mazin explained. "We know what we're gonna do in terms of costume and makeup and hair, but more importantly, we also know the spirit and soul of the actor."

When Ramsey joined the production at age 17, Mazin remembered some fans complaining about how she didn't look like the character from the games. "I'm like, 'It doesn't matter. Watch! Just watch what happens.' And now they know," he said. "I think there is still this constant drumbeat of anxiety. All I can say to people is, I have so much anxiety myself about doing a good job on this. Just know I am also very anxious. If you're anxious about something, I'm probably anxious about it, which means we're talking about it and thinking about it."

Mazin also confirmed season 2 "will be different" from Part II. "It will be different just as this season was different [from the first game]," he continued. "Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be [barely] different at all. But it's going to be different and it will be its own thing. It won't be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make. But we are making it with Bella."

Druckmann also spoke up on the matter. "When we made the game, I felt we were incredibly lucky. It was like lightning in the bottle that we found Ashley Johnson and I can't imagine that version of Ellie being anybody else," he said of the actress who originated the role. "And then somehow we got lightning in the bottle again with Bella."

"The only way we would ever, ever consider re-casting Bella is if she said, 'I don't want to work with you guys anymore,'" he added. "And even then, we're not sure we would grant her that. We might still force her to come back to season 2."
Click to expand...
if Bella ain't in Part 2 then i'm not watching. simple as that. She is Ellie and owns that role now.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
saintjules

saintjules

Gold Member
I mean for me personally it was a nice change of pace in the way we weren't being shoved with infected in every episode like how other shows do it (ie. Walking Dead). So it was unique in that essence.

But yea, in season 2 I expect them to ramp it up more.
 
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