The Last of Us Season 2 is officially on hold
These are troubled times in Tinsel Town, as the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike threatens to derail the whole industry. We're already seeing some major casualties, and while work has ground to a halt on Andor Season 2 at Disney, HBO's The Last of Us Season 2 has met the same fate.
You might remember the 2007-08 WGA strike that decimated Hollywood. Shows like Prison Break and Lost had shortened seasons, while Bionic Woman and The 4400 were axed altogether. You'd think we'd have learned in the years since, but apparently not.
Will the writer's strike affect The Last of Us Season 2?
Click to enlargeAccording to Variety, The Last of Us Season 2 is currently on hold. Given that the last strike ran for just over three months, the release schedules of everything that isn't currently completed could soon be pushed back. Even shows and movies with finished scripts are likely to be affected.
The site claims The Last of Us Season 2 had been preparing to hold auditions until the strike action kicked in. Actors were reportedly being asked to read lines from 2020's The Last of Us Part II, confirming what we already knew about Season 2 sticking close to the source material of Naughty Dog's sequel.
Reading lines from the game is because there's reportedly no script currently written for Season 2, and with the strike, that could be even further off. Variety states that shooting is set to take place in Vancouver in early 2024 but doesn't make it clear whether that could slip due to the WGA strike.
The writer's strike could affect all of Hollywood
Click to enlargeAs for a lack of The Last of Us Season 2 script, it's unsurprising given that showrunner Craig Mazin has been seen on the front line of the strike with fellow WGA members. Game Director Neil Druckmann has also stopped any work on The Last of Us until the issues are resolved.
Elsewhere, the Duffer Brothers have confirmed the final season of Stranger Things has also ground to a halt. Not everything is being put on ice, though, as production on House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power are carrying on due to scripts having been written. Still, there could be problems.
Changing lines on-set is standard practice, but with no writers around and it being frowned upon during a time of striking, it's not that easy. Daniel Craig was famously grumpy about having to change lines on Quantum of Solace with director Marc Foster.
There are a tonne of video game adaptations on the horizon, and as well as Amazon's live-action Fallout, we have high hopes for the network's God of War. The Last of Us set the bar for this kind of shows, so it's a shame Season 2 could be slipping away before our eyes.