'The Last of Us' host on whether Joel made the right decision in finale

This last survivor Producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann tackle their acclaimed HBO Some burning questions raised by the first season finale of the series , they co-wrote and directed by Ali Abbasi in “Finding the Light”. Speaking at an embargo press conference with reporters last week, the co-creators also teased some of their thoughts on season 2:

— About Joel’s( Pedro Pascal) decided to execute the fireflies who wanted to use Ellie (Bella Ramsey ) for a potential pandemic treatment, a procedure he learned would kill her in the process : “When you love something unconditionally, logic breaks down and you do really horrible things to protect what you love people,” Mazin said. “There are a lot of examples of this happening in the world all the time. So for us it’s like, ‘Here’s all the different pieces that we have, the tools that we have in this story. How can we build on the theme of each episode Touch this somehow? Like Bill and Frank Stories can bring beautiful joys, and when a guy has to kill his own brother because he’s transgendered, fate is worse than death. [has] Joel must Making more and more sacrifices for Ellie, and likewise, what she’s going through to protect him. I’m morally confused about this. I think it’s a tough choice. I go back and forth. I think a lot of people will be at There’s been a lot of back and forth about this.”

— Sources say Ellie may have died because of her mother Anna was bitten by a Clicker and gained immunity while giving birth (read THR Interview with Ashley Johnson more) : “It does imply and gives some insight as to why Ellie The theory of immunity, even if we don’t know it, finally answers this question,” Druckmann said. “But I think it’s more important than that, is it building a relationship between Marlene (Merle Dandridge) and Anna, so when you get to the end and we have Marlene against Joel, they have their own opposing philosophical terms to deal with How to deal with ends vs. means, knowing how close she was to Ana. Anna’s dying wish was to ‘take care of my children’, which I think makes Marlene’s sacrifice for the advancement of humanity all the more important and possibly more tragic. ”

— About Ellie’s identity Father: “I never had my own curiosity about Ellie’s father,” says Mazin. “It would have been better if it seemed to me that Joel’s daughter existed, and then he met Ellie, and the whole thing was about how hard it is to let other people in when you close that door and close it forever. But To Allie, that room was never occupied, and Joel went in almost immediately.”

— About stealing another voice actor from the game, The Last of Us Part 2 ‘s Laura Bailey (Abby), as a nurse (discovered by Nick Romano at Electronic Warfare): “Laura and Neil were good friends, and we said, ‘Want to be a nurse?’” recalls Mazin. “I showed Laura around the halls of this hospital and she cried just looking at it… It’s not uncommon for people from Neil’s game world to feel like they’re stepping into this impossible, amazing VR adaptation Things.”

— about their creative process approaching second season: “Our process works,” Mazin said. “The process by which we test everything, the process by which we agree, no matter how much we disagree, we’ll find a way to agree. There’s no veto here. Nobody gets their way, it’s ‘We’ll figure it out Solved”. To keep the writing process roughly the same, it was pretty solitary and monk-like…I think our process will be a little bit more efficient, which means we’ll have more time to do some of the more complex stuff.”

— Regarding Ellie’s aging in season 2, this is after a years time jump : “We knew what we were going to do with her costume, makeup and hair,” Mazin said. “But more importantly, we understand the spirit and soul of the actor. She Now, with The Last of Us Part II Ellie in the same age … will be different. Just like this season is different, it will be different. Sometimes it will be completely Different…it’s not going to be exactly like a game. It’s going to be a show that Neil and I want to make.”

— on how fans should stop sending creators links about mushrooms : esp Druckmann, have been getting this from friends and fans since . “As soon as a mushroom popped up, I’d have someone text me,” Mazin said. “People send me pictures of mushrooms as they walk. I think, ‘I don’t care! Every follower Cordyceps product, I have received the link.”

— on how the world has been “infected” : “The world is A check on tribalism,” Druckmann said. “The cure is more empathy, more seeing things from other perspectives, and being a little less selfish with our little tribe.” Mazin added: “I think the world is infected by narrative. I think being a storyteller people, what I see around me are people who are supposed to be telling the truth are actually telling stories. Everyone – politicians, journalists – everyone seems to organize their opinions into something that can be sold to you stories. So it’s all becoming like an ad. By narrating everything, we’re losing touch with the simple, unadorned, humble truth of things. In a way, I wish we could go back to that time and treat everything as Make a story. But at least I sleep soundly at night knowing that the stories we tell here are proudly and loudly labeled fiction.”