The Last Of Us Season 2: Release Date, Cast, Plot & Everything We Know
The first season of HBO post-apocalyptic thriller ‘The Last of Us’ has concluded yet and fans are already anticipating the second season.
- The Last of Us premiered on HBO on January 15, 2023.
- On January 27, 2023, HBO renewed the series for a second season.
The Last of Us is a post-apocalyptic drama series created by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann for HBO. The show is based on the 2013 video game developed by Naughty Dog. The show stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as the main leads.
Debuted on Jan 15, 2023, HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama, The Last Of Us, takes place 20 years after modern civilization has been destroyed. 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 travel across America and depend on each other for survival.
It has only been a month since The Last of Us premiered on HBO, and yet excitement for a second season of the post-apocalyptic drama is already exploding. Well, HBO has already renewed the series and fans are now eager to know more about it. Here is all we know about the second season of The Last Of Us.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Release Date
HBO announced the news on 27 January 2023, revealing a follow-up season of The Last Of Us is definitely happening. “The journey continues. #TheLastOfUs will return for another season on @HBOMax,” they wrote on Instagram.
The co-creator Neil Druckmann announced, “I’m humbled, honoured, and frankly overwhelmed that so many people have tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’s journey,” He added, “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!”
“I’m so grateful to Neil Druckmann and HBO for our partnership, and I’m even more grateful to the millions of people who have joined us on this journey,” said Craig Mazin, co-creator on the show. “The audience has given us the chance to continue, and as a fan of the characters and world Neil and Naughty Dog created, I couldn’t be more ready to dive back in.”
So we know that season 2 is confirmed! However, it is difficult to even predict the release date. Once the first season concludes, we will keep an eye on the production schedule and will be in a better position to guest the premiere date for the second season.
Casting for the first season took place during 2020 and season 1 was filmed for almost a year, from July 2021 to June 2022. It seems unlikely that the second season would be released before the end of 2024, but as soon as the first season ends, we’ll keep you posted on any further updates.
The Last Of Us Season 2 Plot
The first season of the series is expected to cover all of the events of the first video game The Last of Us. Even though Mazin and Druckmann have not really confirmed it, they have hinted that a second season would cover the events of the sequel video game Part II, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In 2020, in an interview with Eurogamer, Druckmann said the first game The Last Of Us was about “how far someone is willing to go for someone they love unconditionally” while the sequel is about “how far are you willing to go for love, but when someone has wronged someone you really care about. How far are you willing to go to do right by them, to bring the people responsible to justice and what effect that would have could have on you.”
As the series is following the events of the game, the second season will have the same plot as The Last of Us II game. Set five years after the events of The Last of Us, the viewers will find Ellie and Joel settled down in Wyoming. They live amongst a group of survivors, however, their peace is soon threatened by a violent event. The season will also introduce a new character, Abby, a soldier who is part of a militia group based in Seattle, and viewers will watch her story intertwine with Ellie’s.
There is a high chance that the show will end with a cliffhanger as Druckmann previously told The Hollywood Reporter: “We have no plans to tell any stories beyond adapting the games. We won’t run into the same issue as Game of Thrones since Part II doesn’t end on a cliffhanger.”
Mazin added: “I don’t have any interest in a spinning-plates-go-on-forever show. When it becomes a perpetual motion machine, it just can’t help but get kind of … stupid. Endings mean everything to me.”
The Last Of Us Season 2 Cast
While the show is killing off our favorite characters left and right, other than the main characters, Bella Ramsey as Ellie and Pedro Pascal as Joel, it is hard to say who will end up in The Last Of Us Season 2.
Other than Pascal and Ramsey, Season 1 also stars Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Anna Torv as Tess, Nico Parker as Sarah, Murray Bartlett as Frank, Nick Offerman as Bill, Melanie Lynskey as Kathleen, Storm Reid as Riley, Merle Dandridge as Marlene, Jeffrey Pierce as Perry, Lamar Johnson as Henry, Keivonn Woodard as Sam, Graham Greene as Marlon, and Elaine Miles as Florence. Ashley Johnson and Troy Baker also star.
The Last Of Us Season 1 Review and Ratings
The series received universal received acclaim from critics, who praised the performances, writing, production design, and score; several called it the best live-action adaptation of a video game.
Rotten Tomatoes, reviewed The Last of Us and the series has an approval rating of 97% based on 282 reviews, with an average rating of 8.85/10. The website’s general consensus reads, “Retaining the most addictive aspects of its beloved source material while digging deeper into the story, The Last of Us is binge-worthy TV that ranks among the all-time greatest video game adaptations.”
Metacritic calculated an average of 84 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, indicating “universal acclaim”.
The first episode of The Last Of Us became HBO’s second biggest premiere in over a decade after House Of The Dragon, racking up 4.7 million viewers in the US across HBO and streaming service HBO Max. Viewership of the second episode jumped up to 5.7 million viewers, a 22 per cent increase.
Episode 3 starring Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett recorded 6.4 million viewers, a 12 per cent increase from Episode 2’s viewership, according to Variety.
The Last Of Us Season 2: Where to watch?
The Last of Us Season 1 is airing new episodes weekly on Sundays at 9/8c on HBO. Episodes also stream on HBO Max. The same is expected to be the release pattern for the next season.
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Druckmann, who wrote and co-directed the original game, assisted Mazin with scriptwriting for the first season’s nine episodes. The score of the series is composed by Gustavo Santaolalla, who composed for the game, and David Fleming.