Well, since Druckman will be using his Part II story which was trash to begin with, at least there won't be much room for disappointment the second time around. Shucks, it might even be an improvement over the game this time, as we might see more of Joel than we did in Part II.
But I'll never understand the hype the first season got. They took out 99% of the action and interactions between Joel & Ellie, and turned it into a slow burning drama about everyone else but them.
In terms of the S1 set up for Joel's overall arc in the TV series, and considering basic writing convention, I see where this is going for this show. And the test case for it was always going to be The Walking Dead.
When Glenn was written out of the show, it was just too much for a decent chunk of TWD audience. Now other issues made it easy to bleed off viewers, that that single scene pretty much caused cascading damage to the overall ratings until the end. What reinforced the problem was Negan had close to invincible plot armor and then the writers attempted to humanize him and then are trying to forcefeed a quasi hate based romance with Maggie.
Limited exposure to Joel in S1 will make it easier to retcon him. This conversation in the video above with Tommy is essentially setting up a flashback episode in S2. All you really need is Joel being shown killing a bunch of orphans (almost like Jedi Younglings no less) or selling preteens in slavery, implied to sexual slavery, and then the writers will have done their best to justify the perceived "karma" for Joel. And boost the Golf Club Queen. Nothing will make her sympathetic, just like nothing is going to make Negan sympathetic.
The other problem from a character development perspective is Glenn/Maggie/Negan ended up making Maggie looking weak, pathetic and incompetent. It was the only way to support Negan's plot armor. So how will that make Ellie look to the audience when Golf Club Queen turns into a fugazi level tortured heroine instead?
Here's the thing. Druckmann can tell whatever story he wants to tell. But you have to have writing that supports it. Bad writing as a matter of principle is more offensive than the actual subject matter within that writing when it comes to TV and film. It just makes no sense. The justification is that "Ellie shouldn't end up being that kind of person, Joel wouldn't want that" When you have to slaughter up to 400-500 people total before you get to that point, that argument holds no weight.
How did killing Glenn off by having his head smashed in work out for TWD? And somehow Mazin and Druckmann think they can magically do better?
Well they certainly are going to hit the gas pedal anyway. Fans be damned. How are they going to even cast this? Drop into every Cross Fit gym and look for the angriest person there reading a dogeared copy of Andrea Dworkin in-between dead lift sets and gulping down PEDs?