The Last Of Us fans concerned over the finale's runtime

The wait is almost over. There’s just a few days to go until the finale of The Last of Us' first season airs, but fans are pretty worried about the length of the episode.

So far this season, we’ve had some pretty chunky episodes. The premiere was 81 minutes long, and Bill and Frank’s backstory episode, ‘Long, Long Time’ was 75 minutes. Without getting into spoilers, I’m sure fellow fans of the game were expecting that the finale would be a similarly lengthy instalment given just how much happens, but in actual fact, it’s the shortest one of the season.

Take a look at the trailer for The Last of Us’ season one finale below.

Believe it or not, episode nine is apparently going to be just 43 minutes long. Over on Reddit, fans are beginning to seriously wonder how everything is going to be crammed in without feeling rushed. One posted a meme of Joel driving while looking concerned (as he often does) with the caption: “Me on my way to my crappy job wondering how they are going to tie up everything left with one 43 minute episode.”

“I don't understand how the finale isn't two hours,” wrote TodddPacker69. “There’s no reason it has to be 43 minutes. Episode three was much longer than that,” Martholomeow replied. “I wish they had drawn out the story for game one. I love the atmosphere that was built and I wish it'd just keep going," added Claires__Eclairs.

Obviously, it’s worth keeping in mind that a lot of the time that goes into the game’s final chapter is combat-oriented, and with the show putting less focus on that, it’s understandable that it’d be shorter than it is in the source material. Even so, it does seem a little strange that the big finale is the most concise episode to date.

Let’s face it though, it’s still almost certainly going to be fantastic. It’ll air on Sunday 12 March in the U.S. and Monday 13 March in the UK - don’t miss it.