Mark Mylod is joining the production team of “The Last of Us” Season 2, fresh off his Primetime Emmy win for the final season of “Succession.”
The director is one of four additions to the HBO drama based on the Naughty Dog video game franchise. Others include Nina Lopez-Corrado (“Perry Mason”), Stephen Williams (“Watchmen”) and Kate Herron (“Loki”).
The group joins returning director Peter Hoar, who was nominated for an Emmy for Season 1’s third episode, “Long, Long Time,” as well as executive producer and showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.
Mylod won Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for “Succession” Season 4, Episode 3, “Connor’s Wedding,” which saw the shocking off-screen death of patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox). He also directed the season’s premiere and finale and served as an executive producer on the series. In addition to “Succession,” his credits include HBO’s “Game of Thrones” and “Entourage” and Showtime’s “Shameless.”
Lopez-Corrado was nominated for an Imagen Foundation Award for her directing work on HBO’s “Perry Mason.” Her other credits include two episodes of HBO’s “The Nevers” and a producing director on ABC’s “A Million Little Things.”
Williams received an Emmy nomination for HBO’s “Watchmen.” His other directing credits include HBO’s “Westworld,” Showtime’s “Ray Donovan” and ABC’s “Lost.”
In addition to executive producing and directing Disney+’s “Loki,” Herron directed episodes for Netflix’s “Sex Education.”
The first season of HBO’s “The Last of Us” takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. Joel, a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie, a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal, heartbreaking journey, as they both must traverse the U.S. and depend on each other for survival.
Season 2, which begins filming in February, will focus on the events of “The Last of Us: Part II,” which takes place five years after Joel and Ellie’s dangerous journey across the post-pandemic United States, where the pair has settled down in Jackson, Wyoming.
“Living amongst a thriving community of survivors has allowed them peace and stability, despite the constant threat of the infected and other, more desperate survivors,” the game’s synopsis states. “When a violent event disrupts that peace, Ellie embarks on a relentless journey to carry out justice and find closure.”
In addition to Ellie, “The Last of Us: Part II” introduces Abby, a soldier in a militia group known as the Washington Liberation Front who is desperate to avenge her murdered father and who becomes involved in a conflict with a religious cult known as The Seraphites. She’ll be played by Kaitlyn Dever.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will return to “The Last of Us” Season 2 as Joel and Ellie, respectively.
When previously asked about Season 2 in August, Mazin told TheWrap that he and Druckmann would “adapt as we see fit” and that the story of the second game “contemplates more than just a Season 2.”
“We’re obviously working off of a fantastic story, one of the most acclaimed video games of all time. The first was one of the most acclaimed and then the second one came along and said hold my beer. It’s pretty intense,” he said. “We are giving ourselves the space and freedom to do it the way we think it should be done best.”
The series is a coproduction with Sony Pictures Television. In addition to Mazin and Druckmann, other executive producers on Season 1 included Carolyn Strauss, Evan Wells, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan and Rose Lam.
