‘The Last of Us’ co-creator Neil Druckmann on exiting the HBO series ahead of season 3

The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann is opening up about his decision to exit the HBO series adaptation of his video game.

Druckmann served as co-showrunner of HBO’s The Last of Us before he announced his decision to step away from his creative involvement in the show in July 2025. In a recent interview with Variety, Druckmann said he did not exit the series on a whim. Rather, it was because he accomplished the goal he set out when he began adapting the video game for the screen.

“I had multiple goals, some of them were selfish. I wanted to elevate The Last of Us beyond the people that have played the game,” Druckmann said. “I felt like that story could find a bigger audience for people that will never play video games.”

He called the goal “crazy,” saying he “wanted someone to watch this show and have no idea it was based on the video game, and then be like, ‘Wait, that’s based on a video game?’”

Druckmann says there is data to show that people have watched the show and it led to them buying a PlayStation or a PC to start playing The Last of Us video game.

“That has become this gateway for them, for this medium that I love so much,” Druckmann said.

Now, Druckmann said, his hard work on season 1 and 2 has paid off and it is time to get back to putting his focus on making video games.

“It was time to go back to the thing that started it all, which is just full-time video game work. But other things are coming and we can announce more things soon,” Druckmann said.

HBO renewed The Last of Us for season 3 in April.

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