“Indeed, the story may require season four.”

The Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin has revealed the show’s second season will be shorter in terms of episode count than the first, but there is a reason for that.

Speaking with Deadline, Mazin confirmed the second season of The Last of Us will comprise seven episodes, with one of those episodes being “quite big” in length.

“We just want to put people’s minds at ease that the idea that this season coming up is a little bit shorter than the first one is not because we’re taking less time to tell the stories, it’s because we want to take more time,” Mazin said. “The story that we’re telling is much bigger than the story of season one, there’s just a lot more going on, it’s a lot harder to produce but we want every episode to feel like its own blockbuster to be honest with you.”

Mazin stated the material the show is working with from the The Last of Us Part 2 is “way more than the story material that was in the first game”, and therefore the showrunners had to find a way to tell that story across multiple seasons.

“When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the [natural] breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes,” he said.

The Last of Us’ showrunners have already alluded to how many seasons they hope the series could run for, with Mazin previously stating “four seems like a good number”. And, while the show has, for now, only been renewed for a second season, Mazin reiterated this point again.

“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [two and three] because we’re taking our time and [going] down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in season one too,” Mazin explained. “We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that – as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television – season three will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require season four.”

Mazin remained confident on this point, later adding: “One thing is absolutely for sure, I don’t see how we could tell the story that remains after season two is complete in one more season.”

The second season of The Last of Us is expected to air next year, with filming currently underway in Canada. Several cast members are returning for series two. Along with Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley are also reprising their roles of Tommy and Maria.

New cast members, meanwhile, include Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Tati Gabrielle as Nora and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac. Catherine O’Hara has also been confirmed in an unspecified role, although earlier rumours suggested she will play a character named Gail.