The Last of Us showrunner says fan backlash exists because “they care”

The fantasy genre takes its viewers/readers to a completely different world. That is the reason why it has such a passionate fanbase. When the Game of Thrones finale aired, it caused a huge uproar amongst its viewers. The majority of them hated it, going so far as to fund a petition for a remake. The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin understands why fans react like that, and is wary that it might happen to him as well.

No character is safe in The Last of Us

In an interview with THR, the Chernobyl creator said, “Anybody that has played the game and then watched the first season knows that sometimes we do exactly what happened to the game and sometimes we do something wildly different. We also don’t necessarily do things in the same order, or at the same time. In our first season, we repeatedly did things that were upsetting — everyone died except Joel and Ellie. People understood watching the show that this was a story where people aren’t safe.”

Craig Mazin doesn’t care about backlash

Dina, the love interest in The Last of Us Part II — is a rare bird in gaming: A relatable Jewish character.

Mazin continued, “If you are planning on running a series for as long as it can, you put plot armor [slang for characters who repeatedly and inexplicably avoid harm or misfortune] on your main characters until such time the actors are asking for too much money or their Q score goes down or the ratings go down, and then you kill them. That’s not what we do or what HBO does.”

“So anyone can die at any moment, as far as I’m concerned. As for backlash, sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between emotion because they care and backlash. But neither I nor Neil make things with that in mind.”

There are also times during the season where we think they’re probably gonna be annoyed with us, but later they’ll get it. Like until you saw Ellie and Joel properly fuse, a lot of viewers were like, “Uh, she’s annoying.” And I’m like, “Yeah, exactly! She’s annoying and you don’t like her — just like Joel finds her annoying and doesn’t like her.” Until he does, and would now kill everyone for her, just like how you feel at the end, because that’s how good Bella is.”

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