I don’t imagine any upcoming finale cliffhangers on the 2025 TV schedule will be as jarring and polarizing as the final minutes of The Last of Us’ deadly Season 2 finale, which left Ellie and Tommy’s fate unclear as the narrative refocused on Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby. Thankfully, Bella Ramsey fanatics won’t need to wait until The Last of Us Season 3 finally arrives to see them back on the small screen, though one of the co-creators is stepping down in the meantime.
The Last Of Us' Neil Druckmann Announced He's Stepping Down As Co-Showrunner
Neil Druckmann was known for his directing and co-writing duties for the first two Last of Us games with his company Naughty Dog before jumping into the TV fray with Craig Mazin to turn the games into HBO's live-action series. He's seemingly been a major part of spinning the source material into a broader world for TV audiences, but will no longer be involved behind the scenes when Season 3 kicks into gear.
Naughty Dog shared the following message on Instagram and elsewhere, citing Druckmann's company-wide memo:
I've made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO. 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.
Druckmann's exit is both surprising and expected all at once, and is both disappointing and encouraging at the same time. With Naughty Dog gearing up for its biggest post-TLoU games, which hopefully one day includes the rumored third game, Druckmann couldn't really afford to spend so much of his creative efforts on the TV side of things. But as somehow who loves how faithful the show has been to the games, I'll miss his input.
His message to others continued:
Co-creating the show has been a career highlight. 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.
Hopefully he'll be able to lend a hand to Season 3 in some way, possibly by directing an episode or two, though that would obviously still require quite a bit of time and effort away from bringing Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet to life.
Bella Ramsey Has Joined An Intense New Thriller Series
With Craig Mazin having previously stated he wouldn't be getting into the thick of writing and building out Season 3 until after a proper post-Season 2 break, it's definitely unclear when Abby's story will kick off in earnest. But Bella Ramsey will be keeping busy in the coming months with a new project.
The Game of Thrones vet has signed on for the thriller drama Maya, which was created by Daisy Haggard, the UK talent perhaps best known here in the U.S. for co-starring in the excellent FX comedy Breeders with Martin Freeman. Or perhaps for voicing the Ministry Lift in the Harry Potter movies. She most recently starred in the comedy thriller Boat Story, and it sounds like this new project will also be a mix of tension and character-driven humor.
According to Deadline, Ramsey will portray the titular character, who is the teenage daughter of Haggard's Anna, and one of the big themes of the show is the strong mother-daughter bond. The two are forced to enter the witness protection program and leave the comforts of their London lives to relocate to a small town in Scotland. But their feeling of safety from the horrors of their past is shortlived, as they're tracked by a pair of hitmen set on taking them out.
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Production on the six-episode Maya will take place later this year in Scotland, with more casting expected to be announced. Though this project, like many UK shows, will take place over a relatively short production span, it still means Ramsey won't be filming for The Last of Us during that time. But does that mean the third season will have to wait until she's free to start filming?
I don't think so, since the first chunk of Season 3 will likely be centering on Abby, possibly with a few flashback scenes from Ellie sprinkled in. But unless Craig Mazin has plans to inject a lot more of the teen protagonist into the upcoming episodes, Bella Ramsey's time on the set will likely be drastically reduced from past seasons.
While waiting to hear more about Maya, The Last of Us' first two seasons can be streamed with a Max subscription.