Everything We Know About ‘The Last Of Us’ Season 2 On HBO

The Last of Us has aired its season 1 finale, and it has already sparked the exact same debate as when the game debuted: Was Joel right?

That’s a conversation for another day (he was, fight me), but instead I want to talk about the next steps for the series. That would be season 2, which was already greenlit after the show debuted with solid performance after its first two episodes. HBO has committed to the series for another season, and likely two more, given the events of what’s to come. But more on that in a minute.

So, answering some questions:

What’s the Last of Us season 2 release date? – That hasn’t been announced yet, but given that this is a prestige HBO production, we should not expect a second season any earlier than 1.5-2 years from now. Pedro Pascal has said the second season might start to film this year, so the best guess is that we could maybe see The Last of Us season 2 in late 2024, or early 2025 at the latest. It’ll be a while.

What’s being adapted? – It’s been confirmed that there will not be any sort of lengthy “break” season that will do non-game content in between the Part 1 and Part 2 of the games. The second season will indeed be adapting the second game. But not all of it. Craig Mazin has previously said that the second game is so big, it will likely take two seasons to adapt this time, as opposed to one season, one game for season 1.

“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 told The Wrap in February. “So the positive thing is it’s not like, oh, there’s just one more season. I think that there is more than one more season to do.”

Is Bella Ramsey being recast? – A big no to this one. While yes, Ellie ages five years in between games, Ramsey is already 19, playing a 14 year old, so there’s no reason they can’t continue with the role going forward, and it’s been confirmed Bella Ramsey is returning to the role for season 2. So there’s just no debate to be had here.

Has Abby been cast yet? – While I won’t go into details of Abby’s character in this article, game fans will know she is essentially the co-lead of the next two seasons if they’re adapting the second game. No, Abby has not been officially cast yet, despite a fan push and some Instagram follows that say The Wilds actress Shannon Berry may be considered for the role given her strong resemblance to Abby. But that is not even close to confirmed yet. Expect some news on this front by the end of the year.

Will the show go past the games? – It won’t, they’ve said that explicitly, so no Game of Thrones territory here. However, the catch is that by the time season 4 of The Last of Us would be ready to air, it is in theoretically possible a third Last of Us game could be released. Again, this is years away at this point, probably close to four years, but the timing could line up.

So, that’s what we’ve got for now. More news as it comes in.

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