'The Last of Us' - Season 2 Thread (NO GAME SPOILERS!) | HBO | Neil Druckmann stepping away from creative involvement

[The Prince of All Saiyans]

I just started season 2 last night and this sh-t is crazy, I only started the game so this is all new to me (though I know the unfortunate things that happen )

about mid way thru episode 2 right now and gonna finish it up later and likely the season over the weekend

episode 2 and where i'm at has me cause I know what's coming

 

[Blackfyre]

Neil Druckmann is stepping away from creative involvement in The Last of Us HBO series to focus on Naughty Dog and its future projects



1:44 PM · Jul 2, 2025

 

[Lootpack]

Beat me to it. Mazin having full creative control now…I dunno about that.

 

[EzekelRAGE]

The downward spiral bout to go to the depths of hell

He made sure to say he leaving before any meaningful work on S3 starts

 

[Ziggiy]

The downward spiral bout to go to the depths of hell

He made sure to say he leaving before any meaningful work on S3 starts

I think its going to be the opposite. With Druckman gone and Maizon writing everything I think he won’t he so beholden to the games and can stretch out a little bit more creatively.

 

[Primetime]

I feel like i’m the only one who didn’t interpret that particular scene as homophobia on Joel’s part but more of the shock of him not knowing everything when it comes to Ellie’s personal life. He was so sure that Ellie had a thing for Jessie that seeing her with that girl was a realization that he’s not the all knowing father figure he thinks he is. Even when he said “You’re experimenting with girls now?” He didn’t deliver the line with disgust or resentment more so like someone still holding onto the IDEA of who he thinks Ellie is rather than seeing her for who she is.

Also I took that as why he went so hard defending her from Seth for BEING homophobic. He was trying to, in his clumsy way, let Ellie know he accepted her.

Maaan we just need to stop with the capin with what they were tryna do. The intent of that shyt was to paint him at worst as homophobic and at best "insensitive/ignorant" to whatever that demographic (LGBT) goes through. The point was a "oh no he didn't!" for the LGBT or super liberal crowd; which is why they included that scene that was never in the game.

But to me it was not only unnecessary, the whole scene just made ppl dislike Ellie even more

 

[Primetime]

Like I said in the Arcadium thread, show got fukked up so bad in s2 dude got on his '95 Jordan shyt after baseball

"don't quit ya day job"

 

[Jmare007]

I think its going to be the opposite. With Druckman gone and Maizon writing everything I think he won’t he so beholden to the games and can stretch out a little bit more creatively.

Idk breh, hearing the podcast it seemed Mazin was the one that was adamant on following the game the way they did in season 2. It might all just be PR babble on his part but it seemed it me he is a legit stan of the source material. Which is why I was so surprised he didn't realize what was going on with Ellie's character and his version of her on the TV show.

Druckmann always seemed like more of an adviser that got to realize his dream by directing a couple of episodes. But both talked about how Druckmann wasn't always present during filming and came and went depending on his own schedule.

This sounds more like GRRM leaving GOT in the hands of Benioff & Weiss.

 

[Jmare007]

Like I said in the Arcadium thread, show got fukked up so bad in s2 dude got on his '95 Jordan shyt after baseball

"don't quit ya day job"

Neil like "I got Intergalactic to worry about, see ya "

 

[Ziggiy]

This sounds more like GRRM leaving GOT in the hands of Benioff & Weiss.

PLEASE don’t conjure such tragedy upon this series

 

[Jmare007]

PLEASE don’t conjure such tragedy upon this series

It's on Mazin to steer the ship now

 

[Lord Beasley]

Season 3 is bout to be even more ass. They killed the show

 

[wire28]

Uh oh. Season 3 bout to be even more ass
Edit:

Season 3 is bout to be even more ass. They killed the show

why did we say the same exact thing

They bout to have a season focused on a character casual fans hate written by a guy the diehards hate. This is gonna be a dumpster fire and hella wasted potential from what we was hoping from when this all started with season 1

 

[DaddyFresh]

I think its going to be the opposite. With Druckman gone and Maizon writing everything I think he won’t he so beholden to the games and can stretch out a little bit more creatively.

this. it could obv go either way, but this reads as dispute over direction and druckmann was doing too much. most likely had big disagreements

 

[EzekelRAGE]

druckmann was doing too much

I dont understand how Nel is getting the blame for the shytshow this season is, he directed and wrote the best episode of this season. That means the dumb shyt like ellie going "Im gonna be a dad" is on Craig, along with Ellie's stupidity.

Maybe yall got better faith in him handling this IP than I do. But from the bullshyt he was spewing in the after episode podcast(Saying ellie saw Joel as a God), wanting Ellie to be dumb, he dont know wtf he doing.