The Last of Us was hailed as one of the greatest video games of all-time when it was released by 2013. Since then, it’s been remastered by developer Naughty Dog roughly 75 times, received an equally great (albeit controversial) sequel, and been turned into a TV series. Season 1 was a huge hit for HBO and won eight Emmys, including Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for Nick Offerman’s performance in the show’s best episode so far.
What do creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann have in store for season 2? Let’s find out.
Here’s everything we know about The Last of Us season 2.
Plot
The Last of Us season 1 covered the first The Last of Us game. The Last of Us season 2 (which is seven episodes long, two fewer than season 1) will do the same with The Last of Us Part II, but not the entire game. “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 Deadline. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”
He continued:
“We just want to put people’s minds at ease that the idea that this season coming up is a little bit shorter than the first one is not because we’re taking less time to tell the stories, it’s because we want to take more time. The story that we’re telling is much bigger than the story of Season 1, there’s just a lot more going on, it’s a lot harder to produce but we want every episode to feel like its own blockbuster to be honest with you.”
The new season picks up five years after the season 1 finale, where Joel kills a bunch of Fireflies to save Ellie, and then lies to her. Now, they’re “drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind,” according to the official logline.
The biggest change to the show is the introduction of jacked Abby, played by Kaitlyn Dever. “Our casting process for season 2 has been identical to season 1: we look for world-class actors who embody the souls of the characters in the source material,” Mazin and Druckmann said about her casting. “Nothing matters more than talent, and we’re thrilled to have an acclaimed performer like Kaitlyn join Pedro, Bella, and the rest of our family.”
Abby is such a polarizing character from the game that extra security was brought in to protect Dever from internet weirdos.
“There’s so many strange people in this world because there are people that actually genuinely hate Abby, who is not a real person. Just a reminder: Not a real person,” actress Isabel Merced, who plays Ellie’s love interest Dina, said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Kaitlyn had to be extra secured by security when it came to the filming of this.”
Please, everyone, just be normal. For once.
Cast
The returning cast members from season 1 includes Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, and Rutina Wesley as Maria. The most notorious newcomer to The Last of Us is Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, but there’s also Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Danny Ramirez as Manny, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, and Catherine O’Hara in an undisclosed role.
Release Date
HBO has confirmed that The Last of Us season 2 will premiere in April 2025, although it wasn’t specified which weekend in April. But it’s not tough to figure out the options: The White Lotus is HBO’s next big Sunday night program, and it debuts February 16. The season is eight episodes long, which puts the finale on April 6. So, expect The Last of Us season 2 to kick off on April 13 or April 20.
Trailer
Check out the latest teaser trailer for The Last of Us season 2 below.