‘The Last Of Us’ season two auditions reportedly put on hold due to writers strike
Auditions for season two of HBO‘s The Last Of Us adaptation have reportedly been put on hold due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike.
Per a new Variety report, sources close to the production of The Last Of Us have confirmed that the show had begun preparations for its casting process, but have been halted earlier this week.
Other sources told the outlet that actors auditioning for season two were told to read lines directly from The Last Of Us Part II, the 2020 PlayStation game that season two of the HBO series will be based on. Variety also reports that though strikes are ongoing, with no end in sight at the moment, the production hopes to begin filming in Vancouver early next year.
Craig Mazin – who co-wrote, co-directed and was showrunner on the HBO adaptation – has reportedly been spotted at ongoing strikes and is not currently involved in any writing, producing or casting work for season two due to the strike.
Naughty Dog‘s Neil Druckmann, who created the gaming franchise and co-created, co-wrote and co-directed on the HBO show, is also reportedly not working on season two at this time.
HBO’s adaptation of The Last Of Us premiered earlier this year and received rave reviews, with NME scoring it four out of five stars. NME‘s Alex Flood wrote: “When The Last Of Us was announced, a vocal corner of the internet exploded into anxious anticipation, some sniping that Ramsey didn’t look enough like Ellie. Gamers have been burned before by poorly conceived adaptations of their favourite titles, so they were naturally skeptical. But they needn’t have been. The Last Of Us lacks novel ideas, but when it’s this good it can get away with it.”
Since the writers strike was announced early last week, several programmes including Saturday Night Live and late-night talk shows presented by Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert have gone dark, and are currently airing past episodes. Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers have since stepped up to personally pay their staff salaries for the third week of the strike.
TV shows and films that have been affected since the strike began include Stranger Things, Blade, Daredevil: Born Again, Yellowjackets, Abbott Elementary and many more.
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Surej Singh
NME
