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Making ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2: Casting Abby, Video Game Changes and Why the Creators Are at Peace With Telling a ‘Different Version’ of the Story

HBO's 'Last of Us' bosses Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin preview Season 2's big changes and why they're not concerned about potential backlash.

But when Druckmann picked up a PlayStation controller during that first meeting, it wasn’t so he and Mazin could discuss one of the game’s fight sequences involving marauding hordes of “infected.” Nor was it to watch one of the many poignant scenes featuring its two protagonists: Joel, a hard-hearted smuggler, and Ellie, a headstrong teenager immune to the fungal pandemic that’s decimated the planet. On “The Last of Us,” Mazin and Druckmann struck a rare balance between visceral action and nuanced storytelling that enthralled gamers and civilians alike, while Joel and Ellie’s odyssey through a landscape ravaged by a global pathogen hit audiences right where they’d been living for the past three years. Even though anyone who’s played “Part II” (or just read its Wikipedia page) knows which scene Ramsey is likely talking about, Mazin and Druckmann feign ignorance when the second season’s massive twist is even obliquely raised.

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