The writers room for The Last of Us season 3 is looking a little different these days.
The massively popular HBO series starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey was hit by an abrupt shake-up earlier this summer, when its co-creator Neil Druckmann, who co-developed the original The Last of Us game that the show is based on in 2013, exited the series, as well as co-writer Halley Gross, before season 3 was in the works.
Now, fellow co-creator Craig Mazin — now the lone writer on season 3 — is offering an update on how development on the new season is coming along.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Craig maintained he is in his "favorite time" of the development process.
"It's very quiet. It's just sitting here with my wonderful ergonomic keyboard and clacking away. The pages are happening, and I get to be a monk for a while, which I love, and I just write. It's the purest form of what I do," he shared.
"Then in just a couple of months or so, that happy time will start to be less quiet because we begin a very long prep period while I'm still writing, and then we begin to shoot while I'm still writing," he went on, and noted: "In seasons one and two, I finished writing about six weeks before we started shooting the last episode. I don't necessarily recommend this method other than to say this works for me, but it is insane."
Neil and Halley stepped away from The Last of Us to return to Naughty Dog, the PlayStation-owned video game studio behind The Last of Us franchise, to work on a new title, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Asked whether the writing process for The Last of Us will change, Craig maintained: "I don't think it is, in the sense that I was pretty much a monk just writing in a room by myself for most of the time regardless."
He continued: "I've gotten so much out of talking with them over the course of seasons one and two. When we made season two, we really were thinking about what comes after because you can't really tell half of that story without thinking about what the whole story should be. So we really did get that work in."
"Neil's always had a full-time job running Naughty Dog, so it's always been me up in Canada [where the production is], and, ultimately, things are pretty much going to proceed as usual," he emphasized.
In a statement announcing his departure from the show back in July, Neil said: "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."
"Co-creating the show has been a career highlight," he noted, adding: "It's been an honor to work alongside Craig Mazin to executive produce, direct and write on the last two seasons."
In response to both exits, Craig said in his own statement: "It's been a creative dream to work with Neil and bring an adaptation of his brilliant work to life on HBO. I couldn't have asked for a more generous creative partner. As a true fan of Naughty Dog and Neil's work in video games, I'm beyond excited to play his next game. While he focuses on that, I'll continue to work with our brilliant cast and crew to deliver the show our audience has come to expect. We are so grateful to Neil and Halley Gross for entrusting the incredible story of The Last of Us Part II to us, and we're just as grateful to the millions of people around the world who tune in."