The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann is opening up about his decision to exit the HBO series adaptation of his video game.

Druckmann served as co-showrunner of HBO’s The Last of Us before he announced his decision to step away from his creative involvement in the show in July 2025. In a recent interview with Variety , Druckmann said he did not exit the series on a whim. Rather, it was because he accomplished the goal he set out when he began adapting the video game for the screen.

“I had multiple goals, some of them were selfish. I wanted to elevate The Last of Us beyond the people that have played the game,” Druckmann said. “I felt like that story could find a bigger audience for people that will never play video games.”

He called the goal “crazy,

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