With season one of The Last of Us now having come to a close, fans are already itching to learn more about what’s in store for the future of the popular video game adaptation.
Details are currently scarce, but without diving into spoilers for those who aren’t familiar with the games, let’s talk about what we know so far.
Courtesy of HBO
The most pressing question, but also one we likely won’t know the answer to for awhile. There has been no official announcement — other than confirmation that yes, the show has been renewed for a second season — but speculation suggests we won’t get the new season until late 2024 or early 2025.
The creators are currently in pre-production, and star Pedro Pascal told Collider the next season might start shooting later this year.
Courtesy of HBO
Pascal will reprise his role as Joel, and Bella Ramsey will return as Ellie. Gabriel Luna (Tommy) and Rutina Wesley (Maria) are reportedly also returning for the upcoming season.
Ramsey’s return is of particular note, since there’s technically a five year jump between the first and second installments of the game. But as they were 19 playing a 14-year-old in season one, it made sense to keep them on to play a 19-year-old in season two.
“We are extremely lucky to have Bella and the stuff you saw throughout this entire season,” Neil Druckmann said at a recent press conference. “The only way we would ever, ever consider recasting Bella is if she said, ‘I don’t want to work with you guys anymore.’”
Courtesy of HBO
The series will continue following the general outline of the game, pivoting to the events of The Last of Us Part II for the second season. But, as with season one, there will be points where the show diverges from game canon.
“[Season 2] will be different just as this season was different,” Mazin said. “Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it [won't] be fairly different at all, but it's going to be different. It will be its own thing. It won't be exactly like the game.”
Courtesy of HBO
The creative team has already said that The Last of Us isn’t going to continue the story beyond that of the games, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to end with two seasons.
Mazin and Druckmann were cagey when declaring how many seasons Part II will take to tell, but were insistent it would be more than one.
“Obviously there’s a lot more story to tell that exists. The second game is much bigger than the first, the amount of story there is much larger,” Mazin previously told The Wrap. More recently, he clarified to GQ that they aren’t dishing on how many seasons the second game might take to adapt, but “more than one is factually correct.”
We don’t know yet if there is or will be a Part III of the game, but Druckmann has previously expressed an interest in finding a “compelling story” to continue the story. If that’s the case, we could conceivably see that incorporated into the HBO series, should the timing line up.
The Last of Us is streaming on HBO Max.
Yes.
Only one season of The Last of Us has aired, but it has been renewed for season two. There is no word as of yet as to whether it will continue on beyond that.
