HBO has released the first images from season two of the Emmy-winning series The Last of Us. In one photo, Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, has longer hair than we’re used to seeing him with (he kind of looks like his Strange Way of Life co-star Ethan Hawke?); in the other, Ellie (Bella Ramsey) is holding a gun while dressed in winter clothing. There’s no looks at any of the new characters — including Kaitlyn Dever as ever-polarizing Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, or Young Mazino as Jesse — but I’ll take any The Last of Us I can get.
You can see the images below.
Previously, Ramsey discussed the heightened expectations heading into season two, which adapts the brilliant The Last of Us Part II video game. “I know that that’s like the big fear, that all of us working on the show, and probably the rest of the world have, is that season two isn’t going to be as good as season one,” she told LAD Bible. “But I have a lot of faith in the creators… So I think I think we’re going to do great. I think we will top it.”
One of those creators is Craig Mazin, who has read your internet theories about season two. “I’ve been monitoring things on the internet a little bit, people are very clever, they like to see where we’re shooting and then they have all these brilliant theories about what it means,” he said on his Scriptnotes podcast. “I wish I could put my arm around each one of them and say, ‘No.’ Most of the theories are incorrect, some of them are halfway correct, some of the conjecture is like 28 percent correct.”
The Last of Us season 2 premieres on HBO and Max in 2025.