Episode 1 - “Future Days”
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Who are the hosts and creators behind The Last of Us Season 2 podcast?
Welcome to the official podcast for the HBO original series, The Last of Us. Season two is here, and suffice to say, I'm very excited to be back as your host. I'm Troy Baker, and I play Joel in The Last of Us video games, but joining me as always are the creators, the writers, executive producers, and showrunners of the HBO series, Craig Mazin.
Hello.
And Neil Druckmann. Hi. So... We're going to continue what we did for season one. Each week we'll break down the latest episode of The Last of Us, getting into the what, why and how, unpacking and no doubt processing all of it. So I want to warn listeners, these will be very spoiler heavy conversations. So please, by all means, watch the episode first and then you can come back and join us for the rest of the conversation. So season one came out now over two years ago. Now you go into season two and you have the burden of that success on here. How do you meet that challenge?
How did the success of Season 1 impact the creators’ approach to Season 2?
Well, I mean, I will say season one, I'm just going to be fully transparent. I don't do well with a lot of attention. I think the rough thing for me is that if something fails, I feel really, really bad. And if something succeeds the way the first season did, I just feel really, really scared. I don't know why. There was something about the amount of attention and the size of the discussion and the size of the audience, which was way beyond what we expected. There's a general ballpark that you get from HBO. We'd love to hit this number and we... shot way past that number.
It became a cultural event. And that's where I got scared. For you, Neil, going into this, obviously, when the game came out, it was a remarkable release. Was there ever a part of you that said, maybe I can change some things or maybe I've got a second chance to do this again?
I had weird fears, which was like, I wanted to work on this and I knew we would change certain things. I was just very curious how would a TV audience would react? Is it going to be a different reaction? So there's just like a curiosity of like, what's going to happen here? So that's why I really kind of like relied on Craig in those instances to just say, what's best for the show? Like really kind of let's hold each other accountable to do what's best for the show.
Yeah. We care about the audience. We want them to love it. But the specific criticisms or praise, ultimately you have to put a shield up or else you'll drown in it.
For people who are familiar with the games, familiar with the story, if season one taught us anything, it was you don't know what's coming. I love the perspective that sitting down watching this first episode, I have no idea what's going to happen. What was the baseline of you must know these are the things that right off the bat for this season that we want to get across from the very, very jump?
For me, the most important thing was to establish a new reality for Joel and Ellie. It's been five years. She is older. She is different. She is more independent. And Joel is older, too, and has settled into this interesting kind of mentorship life. He's become a pillar of this community that he, you know, initially was sort of at odds with. And the two of them are operating in a world of safety and security and confidence. Jackson is safe. The way that they're interacting with infected is different. They feel more like hunters now than victims or people who are quarry. So that and introducing the new realities for Tommy and Maria and their child, who is in Maria's belly in season one, and here he is running around as a five-year-old,
And meeting new people that are incredibly important to the story, Dina and Jesse. And of course, there is that moment with this absolutely new character named Abby and all the people she's with. All those things are important to get across here because as anybody that watches The Last of Us knows, whatever reality and whatever certainty we create, we're probably going to kick it around a bit before you know it.
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Chapters
9 chapters
1
Who are the hosts and creators behind The Last of Us Season 2 podcast?
0:23–1:30
2
How did the success of Season 1 impact the creators’ approach to Season 2?
1:30–7:14
3
Why was the Season 2 premiere episode titled 'Future Days'?
7:14–11:12
4
How did the creators decide to start Season 2 where they did?
11:12–14:59
5
Who is Abby and what role does she play in Season 2?
14:59–17:26
6
Why was Caitlin Deaver chosen to play Abby and how does her portrayal differ from the game?
17:26–21:13
7
How is Ellie’s character and fighting style portrayed differently in Season 2?
21:13–26:49
8
What is the significance of the community of Jackson in The Last of Us Season 2?
26:49–30:07
9
Who is Dina and how is her relationship with Joel and Ellie explored in the show?
30:07–45:49