Somehow, it is currently been practically a year and a half because the initial season of The Final of Us arrived on HBO. Issues are properly underway with the second season, and we’ve identified for a even though that it will not premiere till 2025. We nonetheless do not know specifically when to anticipate it (even though offered that they are properly into shooting, an early-year debut is not out of the query), but we do now know that season two will only have seven episodes.

In an comprehensive interview with Deadline, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann (director of the two The Final of Us games that Naughty Dog has released for different PlayStation consoles) confirmed the shorter season. “The story material that we got from Aspect II of the game is way much more than the story material that was in the initial game, so element of what we had to do from the commence was figure out how to inform that story across seasons,” Mazin stated to Deadline. “When you do that, you appear for all-natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came right after seven episodes.”

That stated, Mazin stated that season 3 will most likely be “drastically bigger” — we do not know if that is from a scope viewpoint or operating time viewpoint, but it is an exciting factor to broadcast offered that we’re nonetheless six months minimum away from season two premiering. And Deadline also confirmed that season two will have at least 1 added-lengthy episode, a lot like the 90-minute series premiere and the 70-plus minute episode focused on Bill and Frank in season 1.

We’ve identified for a even though that Mazin and Druckmann had been going to spread The Final of Us Aspect II more than various seasons, but it even sounds like the story could spin into a forth season. “We really feel like it is practically assuredly going to be the case that — as lengthy as people today retain watching and we can retain generating much more tv — Season three will be drastically bigger. And certainly, the story might demand Season four,” Mazin stated.

Whilst the plotting of The Final of Us Aspect II was pretty involved, with lots of flashbacks and various points of view, stretching it more than 3 seasons appears like a bit a lot. But primarily based on this interview, it sounds like Mazin and Druckmann have figured out specifically exactly where they want every single season to start and finish and what story beats it’ll cover. Of course, the show hasn’t however even been renewed for season 3 however, so all this is contingent upon continued results. Offered that season 1 was 1 of HBO’s most significant ever, that likely will not be an situation.

Lastly, Deadline dropped a surprising tidbit about a prospective third game in the series — particularly, it is nonetheless unknown if 1 will take place. Certainly, the publication says that “a new installment has not been picked up or place into improvement.” That is a really sturdy statement, albeit 1 that is not sourced straight from a quote or offered any genuine attribution. If accurate, it implies a third The Final of Us game could conveniently be much more than 5 years away, if it ever occurs.

Druckmann did confirm that the show will not go beyond the what has been portrayed in the video games, in contrast to the HBO Game of Thrones series infamously moving beyond the novels it was primarily based on (not that they had a lot of a option). “As a fan, I’m thrilled that there may be a third Final of Us game,” Mazin stated. “As the co-creator of this tv show, there’s no planet exactly where I would want our show to go beyond the supply material that people today have in the planet.”

Hopefuly, Deadline just has its lines crossed about a prospective third game — with Summer season Games Fest just days away, there is a lot of buzz about what Sony’s initial-celebration studios, which includes Naughty Dog, may be arranging to announce. The final bit of concrete news we got about the game series was that the planned multiplayer game set in the Final of Us universe was canceled.