If there’s an Avengers of television directors, “The Last of Us” just assembled it.
The juggernaut HBO series has landed a murderer’s row of directing talent for Season 2: Mark Mylod, who just won an Emmy for his work on the final season of HBO’s “Succession”; Kate Herron, who directed every episode of the first season of the Marvel Studios series “Loki”; Stephen Williams, nominated for an Emmy for directing on HBO’s “Watchmen”; and Nina Lopez-Corrado, nominated for an Imagen award for directing on Season 2 of HBO’s “Perry Mason.”
The filmmakers join three veteran directors of the series returning for its second season: Creators and executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, who respectively helmed the first and second episodes of the show, and Peter Hoar, who was nominated for an Emmy for directing the heartbreaking third episode, “Long, Long Time.”
Hiring any one of the four new filmmakers would be a coup; lining up all of them speaks both to HBO’s pull with top tier talent and “The Last of Us” as one of the biggest shows on TV. The Season 1 finale scored a series-high 8.2 million viewers when it first aired, doubly impressive considering it was opposite the Academy Awards telecast.
Along with his three Emmy nominations for directing “Succession,” Mylod recently scored an art house hit with his 2022 feature, the culinary thriller “The Menu.” He’s also directed six episodes of “Game of Thrones,” as well as multiple episodes of “Shameless,” “United States of Tara” and “Entourage.”
Before she executive produced and helmed the first season of “Loki,” Herron directed four episodes of the Netflix series “Sex Education”; she reunited with one of the stars of that show, Ncuti Gatwa, when she co-wrote an upcoming episode on the newest season of “Doctor Who.”
Similar to Mylod, Williams recently stepped away from his prolific TV directing career to helm the 2023 period drama “Chevalier.” Along with his episodes of “Watchmen” (including the groundbreaking episode “This Extraordinary Being”), Williams has directed on “Counterpart,” “Westworld,” “Person of Interest,” and “Lost.”
Lopez-Corrado has been directing since 2015, including episodes of “The Mentalist,” “The Flash,” “Supernatural,” “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” and “A Million Little Things.”
Production on Season 2 of “The Last of Us” is expected to start in Vancouver next month. Series regulars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will be joined by Kaitlyn Dever (“Dopesick”), Young Mazino (“Beef”) and Isabela Merced (“Dora and the Lost City of Gold”).
Deadline first reported the news.
