It’s been a major year for video games across TV and film, but the latest development out of HBO‘s “The Last of Us” suggests an uncertain future for even top games creatives in Hollywood. On Wednesday, the co-writers behind the “The Last of Us: Part II” — a best-selling horror video game that broke records and won 2020’s Game of the Year hundreds of times — announced they would both immediately exit the TV show.
Does the rise and fall of Neil Druckmann at HBO suggest Hollywood is effectively shutting out the creative input of gamers, after looting their greatest hits?
HBO’s take on Druckmann and Halley Gross‘ beloved zombie apocalypse game “The Last of Us: Part II” already deviated significantly from its source material. That could explain the show’s dramatic decline in viewership last season, a problem some fans say the writers’ exit will only make worse.
“The Last of Us” was created by Druckmann, head of Naughty Dog Studios, in 2013. He co-wrote its sequel with Gross a decade later, just as he was starting up the TV show at HBO. Both Druckmann and Gross worked on adapting “The Last of Us” Season 2 with showrunner Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”), and neither indicated they had plans of leaving during the show’s most recent press cycle.
Now, Mazin serves as the only creative voice expanding on “The Last of Us” storytelling universe in Season 3 (which was announced in April). Druckmann has been a force in the games industry for years, but there’s no denying that his public image was helped by the show.
“Name another video creative who has been elevated to that level. You can’t,” said an anonymous industry insider. “At least in games adaptations, no one else has had that kind of sudden household name recognition.”
While “The Last of Us” filled a programming void left behind by “Game of Thrones,” Druckmann stepped into the “genius author” role previously filled at HBO by George R.R. Martin. In an official statement, Druckmann expressed gratitude for Mazin and HBO while simultaneously distancing himself from the future of their TV project.
“With work completed on Season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on Season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, ‘Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet,’” he wrote.
By most accounts, the upcoming sci-fi game will be a big deal for Naughty Dog, but several sources familiar with “Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet” told IndieWire it was nowhere near release. Even if it is crunch time for Druckmann on his next game, that doesn’t explain Gross leaving “The Last of Us” too. The very idea that Druckmann is walking away and wasn’t immediately replaced by Gross suggests that HBO brass doesn’t feel a responsibility to please the Naughty Dog audience like it did before.
“With great care and consideration, I’ve decided to take a step back from my day-to-day work on HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ to make space for what comes next,” Gross wrote on Instagram. “I have some truly rad projects ahead that I can’t wait to share, but for now, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who brought Ellie and Joel’s world to life with such care.”
There are countless ways to interpret Druckmann and Gross departing HBO — creative differences among them. “The Last of Us” has drawn both praise and criticism for exploring powerful political themes, and any number of approaches might make sense following the backlash incited by Season 2. Considering its underwhelming performance, this could be as good a time as any for Druckmann and Gross to take their success and step away… or for HBO to see them out.
Trying to please too many audiences at once can end in catastrophe, and effectively streamlining “The Last of Us” for TV through Mazin might prove a smart move for HBO. It will also widen the cultural divide between loyal video game consumers who were early fans of the show long before it was a show, and viewers who only know properties like “The Last of Us” because of these TV and film adaptations.
In 2025, there’s evidence for and against claim that Hollywood is scavenging and discarding a new breed of creatives for its own ends. Sony’s “Until Dawn” changed the source material so dramatically it’s a wonder the studio bothered referencing the original game at all. Meanwhile, Warner Bros.’ “A Minecraft Movie” made the most of its sandbox inspiration — but still pushed the visibility of “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess above any creatives at Microsoft.
The box office is objective, and video game adaptations will certainly continue. Still, this sudden retreat from “The Last of Us” suggests gamers and mainstream studios could be playing by some new rules: one where so-called “collaboration” starts and stops in the boardroom.