‘The Last Of Us’ Shocker: Co-Creator Neil Druckmann Exits Hit HBO Series Ahead Of Season 3

Neil Druckmann won’t be involved with the upcoming third season of the HBO series “The Last of Us,” based on the extremely popular survival post-apocalypse video games he made and helped co-create the series with Craig Mazin, has announced his official exit from the show in a social media post.

Druckman made the shocking announcement from the official Naughty Dog Instagram account, the developers of the two video games that the HBO series adapted. Citing that he’ll be focusing his energy on the game studio’s next ambitious sci-fi game, “Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet,” which is their next big PlayStation exclusive and focuses on off-world adventures throughout the galaxy.

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“I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO,” Druckmann said in a statement posted this afternoon. “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 continued in his send-off announcement. “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.'”

He wasn’t just a writer/creative on the acclaimed HBO project, as Druckmann directed two episodes of the show after helming the video games that employed motion capture techniques, allowing most of the dramatic cinematic scenes to be shot like a stage play with actors in a studio.

“The Last of Us” focuses on survivors trying to find a cure after a global pandemic that saw a fungal virus both kill and resurrect human hosts as rabid zombie-like creatures referred to as clickers. Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, and Kaitlyn Dever are the show’s leads.

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What this means for the show beyond that, Mazin is now without his creative partner, remains to be seen. We’re sure more information will be coming out about the future of “The Last of Us” as season three is still expected to continue at this point.