The Last Of Us co-creators explain the cliffhanger finale

 Warning: this article contains spoilers for the The Last Of Us finale.

After nine episodes, The Last of Us finale aired on Sunday night. It was a violent and poignant episode that mirrors the shocking events of the 2013 video game. Just like in the source material, Pedro Pascal’s Joel goes to inhumane lengths to save Ellie (Bella Ramsey), and in the process dooms the remnants of the world to a prolonged post-apocalyptic existence.

TV audiences needn’t worry too much about finding out where this cut-to-black ending goes next – a second series has already been commissioned – but game players eventually waited seven years to find out where Joel and Ellie’s relationship takes us.

Ahead of the final episode, we sat down with co-creators Neil Druckmann (who directed the video game) and Craig Mazin to discuss the creative decisions and diversions driving Season 1, how they approached adapting such a sacred ending for TV, and where they hope to take the series for season two and beyond as they adapt the next game, 2020’s The Last of Us: Part 2.

Craig, you’ve talked a lot about how much you love the original game. What was your first interpretation of it when you played it in 2013?

Mazin: I initially wasn't planning on playing it because it was a zombie game. That's what I knew: zombie game.

Druckmann: Actually, the word zombie is banned.

Mazin: I'm still angry at Eben Bolters [director of photography] for that! I text him like 'Eben! Nobody banned any words anywhere?!' And he's the 'the guy that took it out of context!' But, basically, it just wasn't my genre. And a friend of mine, Chris Morgan, who made the Fast and Furious movies was like 'dude, no, you don't get it.' So I pop it in. And after about 10 minutes, I'm like, 'what the fuck is going on?!' Not only is this not the thing that I didn't want to do, this is even better than anything I would've wanted to do.

The Last of Us takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.HBO/Warner Media

Now that the entire season is out, are there any parts of the game that nearly made it into the show but didn’t make the cut to fit into nine episodes? Or, Neil, is there any part of the game that you fought for that you decided to not adapt?

Mazin: I know there are sequences that people were very excited to see that weren't in the show. One that would come up a lot was the hotel basement.

The scariest part of the game!

Mazin: That is a terrifying sequence. But it's harder to pull off solo sequences like that, where it's one character alone and it’s just about action and atmosphere. What we find in the passive medium is that those action sequences are best appreciated by us watching through the reactions and interactions of the characters. So the episode Neil directed, where Tess, Joel and Ellie are in the museum and the clickers come. So much of that is about them looking at each other. And that is where the character magic happens.

Druckmann: One of my favourite sequences in the game is when Joel falls on the rebar. And you're playing as Joel and Ellie's leading you and protecting you. If we'd done that the same exact way, the show would have suffered. Joel falling on the rebar is less realistic for the show where we're building. So for everything we've set up until that point, we're giving up some reality. Ellie having to lead you and kill a bunch of people takes away from her kill with David and James [Episode 8]. The question is always 'what's the least we need to do to tell this version of the story?'

In the finale, we were struck by how Joel’s rampage felt so much more accentuated than it does in the game, because of how much less conflict is peppered throughout the episodes. It felt like Joel almost turns into John Wick for a moment. Was this intentional?