Bella Ramsey plays Ellie in Season 2 of The Last of Us.

Neil Druckmann pulls back from The Last of US show to focus on Naughty Dog games

Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of The Last of Us show on HBO, is pulling back from the show’s production to focus on Naughty Dog games.

In a note to the Naughty Dog community, Druckmann said, “I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO. With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.