Emmy-nominated HBO adaptation The Last of Us remains in production limbo, with its eagerly anticipated second season continuing to feel the effects of the ongoing Writer's Guild of America strikes. While the jury's out on when or if strikers' demands will be met, showrunner and series co-creator Craig Mazin managed to submit the script for next season's first episode just before the clock struck midnight.
Speaking to Deadline, Mazin was asked how things had been progressing before pens were thrown down in strike solidarity: "We got pretty far. Actually, we were doing great. Neil [Druckmann] and I had been sitting and talking with Halley Gross, who also worked on the second game as a writer, and Bo Shim, the new writer... We know what the whole season is, and I was actually able to write and submit the first episode right before the deadline hit."
Stopping work on something like The Last of Us can't be easy, regardless of the cause. But with Hollywood studios pulling moves that range from cartoonishly evil to outright Machievelliean, sometimes enough is enough. Mazin just hopes they can get the show out sometime near its projected 2025 release window. He describes the way he's been passing the days, engaging in what is (hopefully) still a union-approved activity:
"I’m just walking around kind of brain-writing, I guess, which I don’t think is scabbing. I take walks, and I think through the scenes because when the bell rings and this is over because the companies have finally come to their senses, I’m going to have to basically shoot myself out of a cannon because we really want to try and get this show on the air when it’s supposed to be on the air."