HBO's The Last Of Us Co-Creator Is Leaving Before Season 3 - Here's Why

Fans of HBO's "The Last of Us" will probably be shocked to learn that co-creator and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann, who developed the original PlayStation games with his Naughty Dog team, is stepping down as co-showrunner. With that said, fans of Naughty Dog's game portfolio might have good reason to be really excited.

"I've made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in 'The Last of Us' on HBO," Druckmann, who previously served as co-showrunner alongside Craig Mazin ("Chernobyl"), said in a statement posted on Naughty Dog's official Instagram account. "With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, 'Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet,' along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative."

"Co-creating the show has been a career highlight," Druckmann's statement went on to add. "It's been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct, and write on the last two seasons. I'm deeply thankful for the thoughtful approach and dedication the talented cast and crew took to adapting 'The Last of Us Part I' and the continued adaptation of 'The Last of Us Part II.'"

There's no question that Druckmann has been an enormous part of HBO's "The Last of Us" since the series began its run in early 2023, so while it feels like a game changer to see him step away, it's good to know that it's in service of Naughty Dog's continued work. So, what does Mazin have to say about all this?

Outlets like Variety have obtained a statement directly from Craig Mazin, a guy who was once best known for the "Hangover" sequels before he shifted his focus to a much darker subject and created the HBO series "Chernobyl," making it clear that he's an incredibly skilled dramatic showrunner. Unsurprisingly, Mazin was supportive of his co-showrunner's next move.

"It's been a creative dream to work with Neil and bring an adaptation of his brilliant work to life on HBO," as Mazin's statement puts it. "I couldn't have asked for a more generous creative partner. As a true fan of Naughty Dog and Neil's work in video games, I'm beyond excited to play his next game. While he focuses on that, I'll continue to work with our brilliant cast and crew to deliver the show our audience has come to expect. We are so grateful to Neil and [the original game's co-writer] Halley Gross for entrusting the incredible story of 'The Last of Us Part II' to us, and we're just as grateful to the millions of people around the world who tune in."

The references both Neil Druckmann and Mazin make to "The Last of Us Part II," Naughty Dog's 2020 sequel to "The Last of Us," should make sense to anyone who watched the show's second season. It ends with — semi-old spoiler alert! — Kaitlyn Dever's Abby looking out at Seattle at the beginning of a narratively vital three-day run as the fate of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) hangs in the balance. It's going to take a while, at the rate the show is going, to adapt all of "The Last of Us Part II," the story of which spans years. In any case, it's very possible that Mazin won't replace Druckmann (who could possibly replace the guy who created the original game, after all?), but based on his work on the series, we can all feel pretty comfortable about Mazin steering this metaphorical ship on his own.

Something that fans of "The Last of Us" will likely miss most about Neil Druckmann's departure from the series is that, after cutting his teeth on directing video games like "The Last of Us" itself, Druckmann stepped behind the camera for two incredibly important episodes in the series. His first episode, "Infected," is the second-ever episode of the show and opens with one of its most stunning scenes, where we see Indonesian mycology professor Ratna Pertiwi (Christine Hakim) makes a horrifying realization about the cordyceps virus that will, eventually, overtake the world and turn people into bloodthirsty zombies. (The scene concludes with her in tears saying Jakarta should simply be bombed; it's frankly unforgettable.) This is also the episode that fully reveals Ellie's immunity to her new caretakers Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) as they attempt to safely transport her across a ruined United States — with Tess sacrificing herself to an infected horde to save Joel and Ellie — so it's pretty important ... and well-directed by Druckmann. (Mazin, for his part, wrote this episode.)

Then, in season 2 of the series, Druckmann took up the director's chair once more for "The Price," the season's penultimate episode (which was also written by Druckmann alongside Mazin and Halley Gross). After Joel's shocking and brutal death earlier in the season, "The Price" serves as one big flashback, similar to the game, that shows Joel and Ellie's relationship throughout the years as they live in the protected settlement of Jackson, Wyoming. Not only is this the episode where we find out what actually happened to Joe Pantoliano's character Eugene, but it also features one of the most emotionally resonant scenes in the entire show between Joel and Ellie, which is stunningly performed by both Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Druckmann's departure as showrunner is tough for the series, and losing him as a director is hard too; maybe, one day, he'll pop back in for another directing credit (though he may be too busy, so let's not hold our breath).

"The Last of Us" is streaming on HBO Max now.