Neil Druckmann doubles down on distancing Naughty Dog from The Last of Us season 3, saying he had no involvement in the HBO show's "creative direction"

The Last of Us creator and previous co-showrunner of the HBO show Neil Druckmann has doubled down on having no involvement in the upcoming third season.

When it was renewed for season 3, it was also announced that Craig Mazin would be remaining as sole showrunner as Druckmann exited. However, now Druckmann has gone one step further and suggested Naughty Dog – the company behind the game – has basically no involvement in the new episodes.

"I wasn't involved in shaping this season's creative direction, and Naughty Dog did not have a creative role in the direction of this season," he told the Washington Post. "So I can't personally speak to how production is progressing. It's important for us to note that as the creator of the games, Naughty Dog is still the steward of this IP and even though this might be the end of this adaptation, we're not done with The Last of Us. There's a couple projects in the works that, when the time is right, I’m very excited to talk about."

Druckmann also confirmed that season 3 will "wrap up" the series, after it was initially unclear how many more seasons it would take to finish telling the events of The Last of Us: Part 2.

Filming on The Last of Us season 3 began back in March and is set to run until November. Based on the events of the game and how the second season ended, we know Kaitlyn Dever's Abby Anderson will be our main focus in the new episodes. It's expected that the show will retell some of the events we've already seen from her perspective before returning to the present day.

Bella Ramsey returns as Ellie, alongside Gabriel Luna as Tommy Miller, Isabela Merced as Dina, and Young Mazino as Jesse. Newcomers Michelle Mao and Kyriana Kratter also join as Yara and Lev, key characters in this next part of the story.

For what to watch while we wait, here's our guide to the best HBO shows currently available to stream.

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