Will the second season release this year or not? Here is everything we know about The Last of Us Season 2.
Get ready to embark on a post-apocalyptic journey like no other with The Last of Us Season 2! After receiving fairly good reception and ratings around the world. There is no doubt that the fandom has once again started to bombard social media platforms with questions about the potential release date for the highly anticipated second season.
So, if you are wondering the same, then don’t worry! We have got you covered with all the details about the upcoming chapter, which seems to have a lot in store for the TLOU fandom. Continue reading to find out more about The Last of Us Season 2.
The Last of Us Season 2: When will the series return?
The fans believed that filming would begin this year after discovering that the show had been renewed for a highly anticipated second season back in January 2023. But sadly, the second season’s production has also been disrupted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, which has already impacted the release dates for many HBO shows like Euphoria and The White Lotus, among others, by rescheduling their production this year.
Moreover, in a recent Deadline interview with HBO’s Drama Chief Francesca Orsi, she stated, “It’s “too early to tell” how the scheduling plans for specific shows will be impacted by the writer’s work stoppage, Orsi said. “We were looking at The Last Of Us for some time in 2025.” So, it’s clear that The Last Of Us’s upcoming installment is being delayed by the writer’s strike and will not be released until May 2023.
Hence, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next, as the third season is likely to premiere sometime around 2025!
No TLoU on HBO tonight. But Season 2 is already on its way! Endure & survive! pic.twitter.com/87bKKCDBeO
— Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) March 19, 2023
The Last of Us Season 2: What to expect from the new season?
Francesca Orsi stated, “There will be a couple of new pieces of casting, which I can’t get into. And of course, there isn’t much that we can go into on The Last of Us, given that Craig can’t really initiate in any meaningful way from a writing or casting standpoint. But he and Neil have a good sense of what it is that he’s going to be taking on. We’ll be moving the show from Calgary to Vancouver,” Orsi said.
“All I can say is he’s taking a big swing from both an entertainment standpoint, related to the clickers, but also just the more nuanced, complex character dynamic between our characters, Joel, Ellie, and beyond.” Mazin also discussed the team’s strategy for season two in an exclusive interview with Deadline, bragging that while they would deviate slightly more from the original source material, their general approach will stay the same.
“From a process point of view, Neil and I are pretty much in agreement that we’re not changing a damn thing,” he said. “I mean, our process worked. We worked really well together. We adapted where we wanted to adapt, and how we wanted to adapt. We stayed close to the material. Sometimes we drifted away from the material, but that process worked great. So, we’re not changing that process at all. We are going to [continue to] push ourselves in all sorts of ways.”
He also mentioned that the team was committed to pushing the boundaries. “We’re certainly also going to push the technology that we use forward. We learned so much, particularly in regard to the infected and how to better deliver scenes with them. So, we’re just going to keep moving the bar up and up and up. That’s kind of our call to arms.”
The Last of Us: Frequently Asked Questions
Will there be more seasons?
Yes, there is a huge possibility for more seasons as Neil Druckmann stated to GQ that Part II will require “more than one season” to tell, which kind of confirms that the third season will ultimately be considered while the development of the second season is underway to expand this universe as a major post-apocalyptic drama franchise.
He continued, “Some of the stuff I’m most excited for [in Part 2] are the changes we’ve discussed and seeing the story come to life again in this other version. And I think it’s exciting because it leans into those feelings you had from the game, really heavily, in a new way.” However, when asked how many seasons exactly it would take to adapt Part II, the creators remained hush.
On the other hand, HBO’s Drama Chief Francesca Orsi stated, “I think Craig and Neil are still figuring out where they’re going to come to an end,” Orsi said. “We have loosely heard that there will be a Season 3 idea for the series, but at this point, we’re taking it one season at a time. There’s no guarantee at this point that we’ll have a Season 3 but I know that they both have a vision for Season 3. Whether that lends itself to doing more [seasons], I don’t know yet.”
In conclusion, there is no reason to rule out the prospect of more seasons if the series continues to be a huge hit.
What are the filming locations?
According to Deadline, the drama will set up shop in Vancouver for the continuing saga of Joel and Ellie for more adventures. If you remember, the first season of the zombie drama began filming in July 2021 in Calgary, Alberta, with various locations in the Canadian province serving as Texas, Wyoming, and Missouri. Since The Last of Us: Part II has a major portion of the story that takes place in the Pacific Northwest, it is wonderful to see that the locations are also being taken into consideration.
Is the second season going to be short?
According to co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin, the season two story is much bigger and may be divided into two seasons. “It’s a big animal to take apart, you know? Because it’s a much bigger story and it’s a more complicated story. It’s a beautiful story,” Mazin told IGN. “It’s more than a season’s worth of television, for sure.”
Craig Mazin also confirmed season 2 “will be different” from Part II. It will be different just as this season was different from the first game. Further adding, “Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be [barely] different at all. But it’s going to be different and it will be its own thing. It won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make.”
Will there be more infected in the second season?
The show creators explained about infected bodies, quote, “I will say that even though we were greenlit for a season of television, Neil and I felt like we couldn’t just make a season of television without considering what would come after,” Mazin said. “There is more to The Last of Us to come. I think the balance is not always just about within an episode or even episode to episode, but season to season. It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later.”
How many episodes will be there in the second season?
The next season is expected to consist of at least nine episodes with an average runtime of 43–81 minutes, just to be consistent with the first season. Of course, this is subject to change with the ongoing WGA strike that might also drastically cause a drop in the official episode count if it isn’t resolved before the production stage for major HBO original shows starts soon.
Who will return to the cast?
The cast members who are expected to make an appearance in the new season are as follows Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, 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.
We know that some of the mentioned characters weren’t able to make it till the end of the first season, but there is a chance they might reprise their roles in a flashback scene. Moreover, there will be some new cast additions and removals, which will be announced later, as the second part of the game also has new characters to move the story forward.
Where to stream?
When released, The Last of Us Season 2, along with the prior season, will be available to stream exclusively on Max (previously known as HBO Max). That’s not all, international viewers can also watch it by renting or purchasing it on Google Play, Vudu, Amazon Instant Video, Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime, and iTunes, depending on the viewer’s location and membership plans, which simultaneously depend on the package you choose.
Save who you can save.
All episodes of #TheLastOfUs are streaming now on @StreamOnMax. #StreamOnMax pic.twitter.com/rHkd5oBzQE
— The Last of Us (@TheLastofUsHBO) May 26, 2023
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