Warning: This article contains major spoilers (potentially) for season two of The Last of Us. Now that season one of HBO’s record-breaking post-apocalyptic series has come to an end, ravenous fans are wondering if there’ll be a The Last of Us season two.
The good news is that we had an answer to that question after the second episode of season one aired. If you’re unaware, The Last of Us series is based on the critically acclaimed video game of the same name and its surrounding lore, developed by Naughty Dog and Sony. The first game came out in 2013 and elevated this storytelling medium to a level never really seen before in the video game industry. In 2020, a sequel was released under the title The Last of Us Part II.
The story of The Last of Us is set 20+ years after a devastating pandemic that wiped out most of humankind. The disease, a parasitic fungus known as Cordyceps, quickly overtakes the host’s body and mind. Horribly mutated and aggressive, they become what’s known as “the infected”. Joel (Pedro Pascal), a hardened survivor, is hired to smuggle Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a 14-year-old girl, out of an oppressive quarantine zone. What starts as a small job soon becomes a brutal and heartbreaking journey as they both must traverse the US and depend on each other for survival. Ellie, born after the pandemic, knows no other world—and what happens between her and Riley in episode seven is a big influence on her.
Will there be a The Last of Us season 2?
Will there be a The Last of Us season 2? Yes, showrunners Neil Druckmann (co-creator of the games) and Craig Mazin confirmed a second season of The Last of Us in late January 2023. “I’m humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so many people have tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’s journey. The collaboration with Craig Mazin, our incredible cast & crew, and HBO exceeded my already high expectations,” Druckmann said in a statement. “Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again with season two! On behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog & PlayStation, thank you!”
Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Image: Warner Media/HBO The Last of Us
What will The Last of Us season 2 be about?
What will The Last of Us season 2 be about? As for where the story will go in season two, it’s likely it will be an adaptation of Part II, as far as we can gather from Druckmann who stated: “Part II –> HBO”. Part II of the game was considerably longer than the first installment, by 10 hours of playtime. In an interview with GQ, Mazin and Druckmann confirmed that the story of Part II will actually span more than one season, though they stopped short of saying how many. “Will the next season span the entire course of the second game?” they were asked, the article noted that Mazin shook his head. “It’s more than one season,” added Druckmann.
In an interview with Collider in January 2023, Druckmann and his co-showrunner Craig Mazin said The Last of Us series won’t be one of those shows that drag on forever. “I don’t have much narrative interest in writing a show that is designed to perpetually continue until the network finally puts it out of its misery somewhere,” Mazin said. “I write to endings. Endings are everything to me. I don’t know how to write if I don’t know how it ends. And also, if the show doesn’t have an ending, it means nothing ultimately is truly purposeful. All the stakes become empty because, if the network renews you, everything’s fine, and I don’t know how to do that.”
With regards to the story, season two and beyond will likely deal with the immediate consequences of season one’s finale. Here’s a recap of the final episode of HBO’s The Last of Us. As Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie near their destination—the headquarters where a resistance group called the Fireflies are working on finding a cure—they’re ambushed. When Joel awakes, he finds himself in a hospital bed with the leader of the Fireflies, Marlene, standing watch over him. He asks to see Ellie; Marlene says he can’t as she’s being prepped for surgery.
Marlene explains their doctor’s theory that the cordyceps have grown with Ellie since birth and as such have assimilated into her body, completely making her immune. The plan is to remove the cells from Ellie’s body and multiply them so that they may send the same chemical messages to other infected people and thus, produce a cure. “But cordyceps grow inside the brain,” Joel observes. He quickly realizes that the surgery meant to find a pandemic-ending cure will also kill Ellie in the process.
Joel. Image: The Last of Us Part II/Naughty Dog
In typical Joel fashion, he doesn’t take too kindly to that. He manages to grab a gun off one of the soldiers and fight his way back to Ellie. He finds her in an operating theater and demands she be unhooked from all the medical instruments. When the surgeon threatens Joel with a scalpel, Joel shoots him in the head. The nurses do as he asks and Joel walks out of the hospital with an unconscious Ellie.
After an exchange with Marlene, we cut to Joel driving a car down the highway with Ellie for whom the anesthetic is beginning to wear off. We learn through brief flashbacks that Joel has also shot Marlene. When Ellie asks what happened and why she’s wearing a hospital gown, Joel lies to her. “Turns out there’s a whole lot more like you, people that are immune. Dozens of them,” he says. “The doctors couldn’t make any of it work. They’ve actually stopped looking for a cure. Raiders attacked the hospital; I barely got you out of there.”
They’re making their way back to Tommy’s settlement in Jackson, Wyoming, and as Joel and Ellie do the last five miles on foot, Ellie pauses for a moment. She ponders all the loved ones she’s lost to the cordyceps: her first love Riley, Joel’s partner Tess and young Sam, Henry’s younger brother who was bitten and killed in episode five. She then says to Joel: “Swear to me that everything you said about the Fireflies is true.” He replies: “I swear.” “OK,” she says. Cut to black and that’s the end of season one. It’s almost scene for scene in the video game, too.
The video game sequel is set a number of years after the events of the first. But less than an hour into Part II, Joel faces the consequences of his actions. He’s horrifically beaten to death with a golf club by a character called Abbey. While Ellie and his brother Tommy watch. We eventually find out that Abbey is the daughter of the surgeon Joel killed in order to get Ellie out of the Fireflies hospital. The game then becomes Ellie who’s on a mission of revenge. With regards to the casting, Ramsey and Pascal have been confirmed to return for season two.
The reaction to Joel’s death in Part II in certain members of the gaming community was explosive. Some of the developers and content creators that covered the game even received death threats. But Druckmann has a measured response to that in the lead-up to season two of the show. “How they react is how they react, that is completely outside of our control. So how do we make the best TV show version of that story? That’s the problem that we wrestle with every day,” he told GQ. “To the extent that the storylines move people to rage, confusion, or disappointment or anger. Well that, I suppose, is preferable to the worst possible outcome, which is indifference,” Mazin added.
When will The Last of Us season 2 come out?
When will The Last of Us season 2 come out? We don’t have a release date yet but Pascal mentioned to Collider that filming could begin later in 2023. “In the year 2023? Oh, what season are we in now? We’re getting into spring?… Yes, there is a chance. Yes.” With that, it’s possible season two will come out sometime in 2024.
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