The Last of Us creators refuse to cave into fear as first-look images for an undoubtedly controversial Season 2 debut

The creators of HBO‘s The Last of Us, Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, feel the pressure of the show’s upcoming season but refuse to give into fear. Druckmann and his team at Naughty Dog have spent years thinking about Joel, Ellie, and the dystopia they inhabit, changing the story to keep fans guessing, surprised, and entertained. Adapting the game’s traumatic events for HBO’s award-winning series is complex but also an opportunity to tweak events to tell a different narrative. The creatives behind HBO’s The Last of Us appear ready for the onslaught of criticism. The divide fuels creativity, and now we have a gallery of first-look images from The Last of Us Season 2 to tease upcoming events.

Today, Entertainment Weekly dropped a detailed feature concerning the next chapter of The Last of Us, which consists of seven action-packed episodes that fans unfamiliar with the game franchise could see as emotionally devastating and unforgivable. We live in a time when online anonymity breeds hatred with little consequence, and the team at Naughty Dog is no strangers to death threats against the game’s creators and actors. Will this ugly trend continue when The Last of Us Season 2 airs on HBO later this year? Time will tell.

“Tens of millions of people liked it week after week after week, and that’s a number that’s hard to get our minds around,” Mazin says. “We are accountable to them and we think our job is to continue to do what we did, which is to challenge people and to delight them, surprise them, and make them feel and provoke thought within them.”

“We don’t react to the fear of the audience, meaning our own fear of how they might react to it,” Druckmann echoes. “We keep asking, ‘What’s the best choice for this story, for these characters?’ And that’s the choice we make.”

New season 2 cast members include Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) as Isaac, “the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group, known in the video game as the Washington Liberation Front, who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy,” Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus) as Dina, a romantic love interest for the Ellie character; Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart and No One Will Save You) as Abby Anderson, a major character from the video game who is described as being “a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved”; Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick) as soldier named Manny, Ariela Barer (How To Blow Up a Pipeline) as young doctor Mel, Tati Gabrielle (You) as military medic Nora, Spencer Lord (Riverdale) as Owen, “a gentle soul trapped in a warrior’s body,” and Young Mazino of Beef as Jesse, “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.” (Jesse also happens to be Dina’s ex.) Schitt’s Creek Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara is also in there, in an unspecified role. Merced said Dever is “one of the most talented actors I’ve ever worked with.”

Regarding Dever’s Abby, Druckmann says fans of Laura Bailey’s version from The Last of Us Part II video game should brace themselves for a few character changes. While Abby is a towering, muscular mountain of a woman in the game, Druckmann says Dever’s version is more lithe than we’re used to. “There’s not as much violent action moment to moment,” he says. “It’s more about the drama. I’m not saying there’s no action here. It’s just, again, different priorities and how you approach it.” More importantly, “Kaitlyn has the spirit of the game in her,” he continues. “What I always loved about the idea was that you are going to continually be challenged as you were in season 1. When you try to pick a hero, it’s tough because we’re human beings, we’re not heroes. For every heroic act, there’s someone who suffers on the other side who may see you reasonably as a villain. When you look at Kaitlyn, there’s just something in her eyes where, even no matter what she’s experiencing, you connect. It was important that we found somebody that we could connect to the way we connect to Bella.”

In addition to their in-depth interview, Entertainment Weekly unleashed a batch of first-look images for The Last of Us Season 2. You can check out the gallery below.

Are you excited about The Last of Us Season 2 coming to HBO this April? Let us know in the comments section below.

The post The Last of Us creators refuse to cave into fear as first-look images for an undoubtedly controversial Season 2 debut appeared first on JoBlo.