As the HBO adaptation of acclaimed Naughty Dog video game The Last of Us continues to take shape, we’ve learned who has boarded to both direct the first episode and serve as an executive producer. Back in March, we learned Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin was working with Neil Druckmann, the Last of Us franchise creator to adapt the post-apocalyptic video game into a live-action HBO series. Mazin and Druckmann are serving as executive producers and writers, with Carolyn Strauss and Evan Wells, the president of Naughty Dog, also executive producing. Additionally, The Last of Us composer Gustavo Santaolalla will be back to score the TV series.

Now, it has been revealed in a recent interview with Discussing Film that director Johan Renck has boarded the Mazin/Druckmann series. Renck is an accomplished TV director with a connection to Mazin through his work on Chernobyl, having directed all episodes in the historical drama. In addition to his work on Chernobyl, Renck has also directed episodes of Breaking Bad, Vikings, The Walking Dead, and Bates Motel, to name a few. The Chernobyl director confirmed his involvement as director to Discussing Film, adding,”I’m an executive producer on it and attached to it. It’s an ongoing TV series. So that’s not something that I will be able to take on to that extent, but I’m part of that series and I will be directing at least the pilot.”

Confirmation of Renck’s involvement is exciting news, indeed, but it would be foolish not to address the director’s very interesting mention of “ongoing” in his comments to Discussing Film. Unlike Chernobyl, which was a limited series, it sounds like Mazin’s new project has a multi-season arc in mind. Considering the massive scope and depth of the world, characters, and story in The Last of Us, it makes sense this would be the case; to contain this all to a handful of episodes would be a great disservice. As we noted in our March report on The Last of Us adaptation, plans to cover as much of the first chapter of the Druckmann-created story were already in place and it is expect the HBO series will also include plot points from from The Last of Us Part II.

Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s HBO adaptation of The Last of Us is currently set for a 2021 release.

via Collider