HBO Executive reveals after which season she wants to end The Last of Us series

Fans of HBO's acclaimed series The Last of Us learned the number of seasons the video game adaptation of the beloved PlayStation game will run for. Creators Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin had supposedly revealed that the HBO adaptation of the game would run for four seasons in total. It looks like Francesca Orsi, who serves as HBO's EVP, seems to be backing their plans.

This was confirmed on February 12, 2025, by Orsi herself at the premiere of The White Lotus Season 3. In that event, she spoke with Deadline about the social satire anthology by Mike White and about the number of seasons The Last of Us would go on for. Apart from the post-apocalyptic drama, she also spoke about other HBO shows too.

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What did Francesca Orsi say about the The Last of Us series?

It was known that unlike the Emmy-Award-winning first season, which was nine episodes long, The Last of Us Season 2 will be two episodes shorter, i.e. seven. Orsi teased what fans could expect from the second season, which is expected to be released in April this year. This is what she said:

“There’s certain elements in terms of the various factions that are competing for survival that reveal themselves as a really intriguing survivalist group, and I think they just have a quality to them that feels distinct in how they present it. There’s a certain way [the show] is presenting them in wardrobe and makeup that feels really different than the average person.”

She also teased the endgame for HBO's The Last of Us like this:

“We don’t have a complete or final plan, but I think it’s looking like four seasons. I wouldn’t want to confirm that, but it’s looking like this season and then two more seasons after this and we’re done.”

She was not the only one who said that The Last of Us adaptation would go on for four seasons in total.

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What did the show's creators say about when they would like to conclude the series?

Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin sat down for an interview on Entertainment Weekly on February 3, 2025. In that interview, Mazin had this to say about adapting The Last of Us Part II that was released in June 2020:

“I think it's pretty likely that our story will extend past a season 3. How far past? I can't say. And that's not to say that there are not other stories that could be told, but this story is the one that Neil and I are telling.”

Druckmann further expanded on Mazin's comment:

“We have a plan. We know what we need to do going forward, but we couldn't tell you right now exactly how many episodes or how many seasons it would take to get there.”

Druckmann revealed that the first thing he and Mazin did was to split the second game's narrative arc into small chunks. The creators did so to figure out the stories on which they have a chance to expand. After figuring out where to end the second season, they worked on fleshing out the rest of the specific details. Mazin compared this process to eating food by saying:

“Each episode is like a meal. You can have a light dinner or you can go to a 12-course French restaurant. We have seven episodes. They are high-calorie, dense episodes. If you consider action and drama and scope to be the things that create an epic nature, each one of these episodes packs quite a wallop. You will not be bored.”

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How do you feel about Druckmann and Mazin's, and now Orsi's revelation that the HBO hit will conclude with the fourth season? Let us know. However, we should also remember that the show's fourth and final season is still years away. So, let us all wait for the release date of The Last of Us Season 2, which is expected to stream on Max in April this year.