Popverse's top stories of the day

• Zack Snyder's DC movies "skewed too old" to be successful, says Snyder's own Batman, Ben Affleck
• MEMBERS ONLY: Marvel Matters: How Marvel Studios are realizing its all about the story again, even if it means killing MCU's Nova, Edgar Wright's Ant-Man, and more
• Lore Corner: Heather Glenn may be in a tricky spot in Daredevil: Born Again, but it's nothing compared to her Marvel Comics counterpart

  ---

There is a saying in show business that you should “give the people what they want,” but, if you ask the showrunners of The Last of Us show, that isn’t necessarily true. For Neil Druckmann, who is the creative director at Naughty Dog behind the original games, and Craig Mazin, who first pitched the idea of a The Last of Us TV show, it is important to give people not just what they want but what they need. Sometimes it takes a lot of creative courage to decide what that is.

“One of the notes that I resent the most is ‘We loved this thing – more of it, please!’” Craig Mazin said in an interview. “No. You love it because that’s the right amount of it. When you do more, what makes it special starts to dissipate. It becomes comfort food. And if there’s one thing about ‘The Last of Us,’ it is not comfortable.”

Neil Druckmann agrees, adding that it sometimes takes a lot of experience to know how much of a certain thing is just enough – and, even then, you have to have the guts to stick to your guns. “I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant,” Druckmann said. “But I think you have to have a certain level of success to have the confidence to do what we’re doing, both in the game and in the show. Because on paper, it looks so risky. But this is where I love working with Craig, because he thinks like me. Sometimes, you have a feeling the story has to be this and only this, and you just have to commit.”

“Sometimes you just move all your narrative chips into the middle and say, ‘Fuck it, we’re doing it,” Mazin added.

That creative confidence is certainly something that helped make season one of The Last of Us such a hit and knowing that they still intend to commit just as strongly to their vision is part of what has us so excited for season two when it arrives in April. Sometimes you don’t want to give people what they want – you have to give them what they need.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

• Upcoming movies
• Upcoming TV shows
• Upcoming comics
• Upcoming games
• Upcoming fiction books
• Upcoming comic conventions