Naughty Dog FIRED Off The Last of Us by HBO?!

0:00This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. So it looks like Naughty Dog is getting booted from the last of us on HBO for season three. They're just kind of going in a whole new direction. And I'm going to be honest, they should have done that with season two. We're going to talk about this and how sometimes when you adapt something for another media, another medium, you do need to make some changes to appeal to normies. And in the case of the last of us, the second game was deeply unpopular with gamers. It was not going to play well to a normal audience to people who watch television. They had a chance to change it and they didn't do it because Neil Druckmann, Druckmann, all over the place. And then all of a sudden, they're parting ways with HBO and they're still kind of sort of involved, but not really. And they're just kind of taking it in a whole new direction. See also the walking dead. They went in multiple, you know, there are multiple ways that they deviated from the comics and it worked out well for them mostly.

1:08I guess some people had issues with it, but you know, the ratings were good. The last of us, uh, second season cratered. And it was a joke and a lot of people were like, are they even going to do a third season? Apparently they are, but they're going to, they're going to do it their way. So we'll see, we'll see what happens. It would be wild. If the last of us on HBO actually outlasted the last of us the game series and they actually course corrected it and it lasted for like 10 seasons. I mean, who knows? We're going to talk about this. Before you end today further, please subscribe for more pop culture news, views and rants guys. Go out to clownfishtv.com. That's clownfishtv.com for more podcasts and episodes you will not find anywhere else. Five dollars a month gets you access to pay world content. So thank you very much for the support over there. We don't do super chats here. We'd rather you go over there. Thank you for any consideration. And thank you for watching, even if you don't, uh, don't pay us. We're cool with that. Unlike HBO HBO, you have to pay.

2:10You pay the watch if you want, if you want to watch it. This comes from Forbes. Um, notty dog distances itself from the last of us season three on HBO. All right. So last of us has had a strange journey. Paul Tassie said since it was first released on HBO in 2023. It was a big hit and mostly like by fans. However, things changed in season two. And now it seems like they may change significantly in season three. Well, I think, I think following the games closely and killing Joel off at the beginning. Oh my god, spoiler, spoiler, yes. Killing him off at the beginning of season two was a huge mistake. It was a huge mistake. They said in July of 2025, notty dogs, Neil Druckman announced he was stepping away from the last of a show to focus on games again. Namely, the studio is upcoming blockbuster, debatable, press X to doubt, intergalactic, the heretic profit, which does not show more than single teaser trailer. People are saying this game air galactic is in deep deep shit. It's it's not it's not in good shape right now. And they're spending gobs and gobs of money on it. And apparently Sony is getting very impatient because they want to return on their investment.

3:19And they're not seeing any any return on that and new air view what the Washington Post Druckman remember me. I'm Neil Druckman. Yeah, remember when he was all over the place. So he has to do a new interview to remind people he still exists. And a new air view with the Washington Post Druckman made news that there are a couple of projects in the world of the last of us in the works. This is after a live service multiplayer game. The last of us factions was famously canceled. There have also been rumors about a full on the last of us part three, but nothing concrete. It's going to be like George R. Martin. They're going to be waiting like 20 years for his version of the last of us. They said, but this is interesting. Druckman went on to detail just how not involved he and Naughty Dog are as a whole with the last of the season three on HBO. The second half of the second game, which is meant to end the series. Uh-huh. Rather that has been given entirely to show runner Craig Mason where he and Druckman previously ran it together. Here's what he said. I wasn't involved in shaping the season's creative direction. And Naughty Dog did not have a creative role in the direction of the season.

4:25So I can't personally speak to how production is progressing. It sounds like it's a pretty acrimony is split. I think HBO is like, yeah, we got salvage. We got salvage this thing. There are no reports of a falling out. Uh-huh. But fans blame many issues with season two on the writing, Madison's writing, particularly the particularly the odd changes to Ellie's characterization and personality. I'm going to be a dead. It does seem a bit strange that Druckman doesn't appear to be in the loop at all. Given that this is the studio's highest profile property in one of HBO's highest profile shows, yeah, it's a little weird. I think he got fired. I think they pushed him out. I think he was a pain in the ass. I think he was doing more damage. And he probably was trying to micromanage everything. And it just wasn't going well. That's that's my opinion. Druckman has a really overinflated opinion of himself as a successful game developer, which he is. Going into the television and media spaces, movie spaces, I think he thinks he should have his ass kissed over there too.

5:27Like they do at the game awards and they weren't doing that because they're like, we're fucking HBO. Like, you are just a game dev. That is it. No, you're roll. That's what I think probably happened because he might be a big fish in a small pond. I mean, gaming is huge, right? But he's dealing with again, HBO people, Warner Brothers people. It's a totally different ballgame, totally different ballgame. Many fans are taking this as a not great sign given that would be good to have Druckman still involved, even if he wasn't the showrunner. This seems like a total severing of that connection. So season three is supposed to happen in 2027. So it's two years between season two and three and supposed to cover the same game season three as a significant challenge that will focus. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is okay. So this is how we're ending the series season three has a significant challenge because it's going to focus entirely on Abby, who has only been briefly shown in the series so far.

6:27And it will take a while to get back to Ellie in the present day storyline and the game switch over take take seconds here. It's at least two years. That's why some TV adaptation struggle with bringing games to life recently. The last of us has struggled. I think the, yeah, I think this one's a lost cause, but oh boy, I can't wait for the the Abby the Abby show, right? Nobody cares. I don't even know if anybody's going to watch this. Pedro going to be in at all. Does anybody even care about Pedro? Remember that was like his moment. Like he was like the TV dad, the hot dad or whatever. And now nobody gives a shit about him. Like nobody is talking about him. What else we got here. So they're going to be working on some other projects, I guess, that are last of us related. Neil Druckmann confirms multiple new last of us projects are in development. I think this is I, again, I think they're being pressured to produce last of us stuff because really, you know, this whole thing of studios, you know, producing one game every 10 years is not sustainable.

7:32And we've got a video game crash going on right now. So they're like, hurry and now it's a whole bunch of games for your most popular franchises, even if they never come out. But I don't think we're going to, we're going to, you know, be looking at a future where a game takes 10 to 15 years to come out anymore. I think they're going to be like, you get it done, you get done cheaper, you get done within a couple of years, you know, a reasonable amount of time. But if you've got a whole staff of people and you've got hundreds of millions of dollars at your disposal, you can get this shit done a lot faster than, you know, rock star gets their games done. I mean, I'm just saying this is they haven't released a single game in the last 10 years. They have something like that. Since the last was part two, this console generation, they really haven't released anything else. And I know that there was a rumor that Sony was not happy with them because of this because they're looking at their bottom line. They're like, hey, we bought naughty dog to make money, not cost us money. So they might be cracking a whip on him and telling him to come in and be like, you got to get these games done. Stop.

8:33Around Hollywood, right. We sold the rights again, whatever get in here, get this air go act to game done, get some other last of us games done because that makes money. And, you know, we're not going to re re re re re release the same games over and over and over and over again because people are going to eventually get tired of that, you got to bring something new out. So this come from hype beast Neil Druckmann confirms multiple new last of us projects are in development at Naughty Dog. You step back from the HBO show in 2025 remains the franchise is steward at naughty dog. Remember naughty dog made made fun games. Yeah, so he said that the mystery titles are being developed in secrecy, the studios pushing boundaries on its upcoming slate. Druckmann naughty dog are currently deep into active development on air galactic, the heretic profit, which is going to be dead on arrival. I think bring his focus back to the native gaming medium. Druckmann is serving a dual role by code directing and co writing the new title. That's what they're telling them to do. They're probably telling them to get back to work.

9:35But they said they're going to do some spin off games. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. I just think that the last of us as a franchise, the second game already killed it. And they had a chance to course correct they could have changed things for the TV adaptation. In fact, we've got Sega's present out there saying that most of the people who watch their adapted material do not play the games. This is coming from a what a tombaton media. They said that Sega presents says there's been a rise in fans who don't play games and their engagement with IP can be even higher than that gamer. So I'm like you again you had a chance to course correct some questionable plot decisions. And the games with the show you could have gone in a different direction with it. And maybe the show can last it a lot longer. But this is coming from the president of Sega. Shujie, he talked to the Nikkei about the company's pursuit of a global trans media strategy. And you said one of the topics he discussed within the context was the phenomenon of games are game fans who don't play the games.

10:48Why is it considered such audience is important. So people like bisonics stuff they buy persona stuff or whatever, but they don't actually play the games. And according to the president company has in recent years seen an increasing number of fans who don't necessarily play games while he mentions this is true of all Sega's IP. He singles out like like a dragon series as an example. Like a dragon related merchandise has been performing extremely well for Sega with about 60 to 70% customers being women. And it explains that this layer of the fan base often becomes acquainted with like a dragon story and characters through official YouTube content or by watching streams by creators, but many of them have never actually played the game. This happened with five nights at Freddy's too I think. Even if someone has never played the game, Sega still considers them a fan and a quote unquote gamer. Now that's debatable. The fact that people are growing interested in gaming franchises through different entry points is a benefit to Sega's trans media strategy. This is not going to work with golden acts by the way, I think golden acts is dead on arrival. But yeah, it's really interesting. They said going forward, Sega will continue to strengthen its trans media efforts with twenty twenty six being a big year for persona and angry birds down angry birds now when the hell that happened.

12:01When did they buy angry birds? Holy shit, I missed that. I was just thinking about angry birds last night. I was thinking about mobile games and I'm like, does anybody still play angry birds? I don't want to look brought that up. I was looking at something. I'm like, yeah, there's so many like mobile games that were big 10 years ago and nobody plays them. And I'm like, they're making angry birds movies and like nobody plays angry birds. I haven't thought about angry birds in years. And I'm like, they're making a third movie. I even know they have a second one. Anyway, I'm going to wrap it up guys. Please subscribe. We'll talk later.