HBO has renewed hit series “The Last of Us” for a third season before the drama’s second season has even premiered. The creators of the post-apocalyptic drama are gearing up for a massive Season 3.

“We approached Season 2 with the goal of creating something we could be proud of,” co-creator Craig Mazin told Deadline on Wednesday. “The end results have exceeded even our most ambitious goals, thanks to our continued collaboration with HBO and the impeccable work of our unparalleled cast and crew. We look forward to continuing the story of ‘The Last of Us’ with Season 3.”

HBO Executive Vice President Francesca Orsi confirmed the renewal with Deadline. She called the second season, which premieres on April 13, an “outstanding achievement.”

The Emmy Award-winning series, which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, is an adaption to Naughty Dog’s video game, The Last of Us. The show amassed millions of viewers in its first season in 2023. Critics have already given the second season, which is based on the game’s sequel, The Last Of Us Part II, high marks before it returns this weekend.

There have been concerns among fans that it would be nearly impossible to fit the massive story of Part II into just one season. The storyline of The Last of Part II is nearly twice as long as in the first game, and dives deeper into the many characters navigating the post-apocalyptic world.

Mazin and co-creator Neil Druckmann hinted in a previous Deadline interview that they would need to adapt the game’s sequel into a “significantly larger” third season, possibly expanding into a fourth.

“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin told the outlet.