Prior to the start of The Last Of Us, there was some confusion over the length of the opening season, some of which continues to this day. After two episodes have been shown in the current weekly broadcast, quite a few viewers are still wondering how many episodes are still to come.
One reason for the ambiguity: “Chernobyl” creator and “The Last Of Us” showrunner Craig Mazin self-announced in 2021 that the first season of the video game adaptation would be ten episodes, but recently it was repeatedly learned that it’s only nine episodes. What is it now?
We have been able to watch all episodes of the first season and can therefore say with absolute certainty: Season 1 of The Last Of Us will actually be nine episodes long. But what happened to the originally announced tenth installment? Did the template not deliver enough or maybe an episode will be moved to season 2? The solution of the riddle is much simpler and quite understandable…
Episode 1 consists of 2 episodes
As revealed by Craig Mazin and his co-showrunner and ‘Last Of Us’ creator Neil Druckmann on the series’ official companion podcast, the events now seen in the overlong first episode were originally going to be split into two episodes.
The whole prologue about the outbreak of the mushroom pandemic and the terrible loss that Joel (Pedro Pascal) suffers was actually supposed to form the first episode, which would then have ended with the 20-year time jump in the post-apocalyptic world . main story. It wasn’t until episode 2 that we had seen more of it and only then experienced the first meeting between Joel and Ellie (Bella Ramsey).
However, the responsible broadcaster HBO had something to complain about. It was feared that if there was a hiatus at this point, many viewers would not have enough incentive to re-tune for the next episode. After all, after Episode 1, prehistory in the past would simply end without giving you a real sense of what the rest of the series would actually be about.
Mazin and Druckmann eventually saw that too. The final version of Episode 1 now shows us more of the horribly beautiful post-apocalypse, introduces us to Ellie for the first time, and finally wraps up the preparation of the main story to really get excited about what’s to come.
Wise HBO decision
We can finally make everything clear: The reduction in episodes in the first season of “The Last Of Us” is not due to anything being deleted at the end or a piece suddenly being left outto possibly be more open-ended, but is simply due to the combination of two episodes into one (so season 1 still shows the full plot of the first “Last Of Us” game).
Even though the introductory episode is now a whopping 80 minutes long, the whole is a nice example of how useful the interference of a studio or broadcaster can sometimes be, as long as there is not too much creative intervention. But if there is a broadcaster that knows what is presented to the public, how and when, it is probably the HBO channel, which is mainly used for premium entertainment such as “Game Of Thrones” or “The Wire”.
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Incidentally, the upcoming third episode of “The Last Of Us”, which will be released in Germany on January 30, 2023 on the Sky streaming service WOW, will run for no less than 75 minutes without such a backstory. The other episodes only last between 45 and 60 minutes.