The Last of Us Season 2: What we know so far

The Last of Us Season 2: Expected release date, plotline, recap & more!
Credits: HBO Max

Touted to be HBO’s highly-anticipated adaptation of the favourite and acclaimed Naughty Dog game, The Last of Us is an American post-apocalyptic drama television series that was released on HBO Max on January 15th, 2023. Fully star-studded with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, The Last of Us has garnered the reputation of being one of the biggest new television shows of 2023, backed up by its reputation of being one of the greatest video game adaptations of all time. As a result, it has also been renewed for a second season. No matter where you are in this world, you surely can’t miss watching such a smash hit.

With its final episode, episode 9, being aired on HBO on March 12, 2023, fans are confounded about the arrival of season 2 and whether the series will hit the Netflix library or not. If you are also a part of this coterie, then wonder no more because we’ve collocated every bit of information required for you to know about the second season of The Last of Us.

The Last of Us | Official Trailer | Max

When can we expect The Last of Us season 2 to air on HBO?

The Last of Us Season 2

As mentioned previously, the first season of The Last of Us is completed, with the finale airing on March 12, 2023, in the US and March 13th, 2023, in the UK. Although the second season is confirmed to air, HBO has not revealed its exact release date. We suspect that it will take quite some time before the second season begins airing.

In conversation with The Washington Post, executive producer of the show Craig Mazin revealed that it took them approximately 200 days to film the first season in Canada not to mention the additional months for post-production. Digital Spy states, “In total, it took 18 months from the date when the first scene was shot to the launch of season one on January 15th, 2023.”

Based on this above-mentioned information, we can take an educated guess for determining the release schedule for season 2. However, we also need to take into consideration that the scripts need to be written and the cast and crew need to be put in place. So, presuming the work begins in April 2023, we cannot expect the second season to air on HBO before the second quarter of 2024.

Who are the cast members of The Last of Us Season 2?

The Last of Us Season 2: Everything you need to know.
Credits: Instagram

It’s a little tricky to determine the arrival of new characters, not only because of the paucity of information but also owing to the plot of the first game, as a majority of the first season was dependent on that. Speaking to Consequence, Mazin stated, “The first season is the events of the first game. And if you have played the game, you can tell from watching the marketing materials that we’re also covering the events of the Left Behind DLC.”

Considering that the first season has included a majority of the events played in the first game, we speculate that the second season will be based on the groundwork laid by The Last of Us Part II. The second game features both Joel and Ellie, leading us to conclude the return of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. The second part of the game begins with a five-year time-lapse, which would suggest the arrival of grizzled hair for Pascal. This also means that Bella Ramsey would get the chance to play the role closer to her own age than she did in season one.

We suspect Joel’s brother Tommy, played by Gabriel Luna to also reprise his role in the second season. The Last of Us Part II also introduces a new lead called Abby Anderson and Ellie’s girlfriend Dina. Their roles remain to be cast, along with the following characters (courtesy of Digital Spy):

• Jesse (Dina’s ex-boyfriend)
• Owen (Abby’s ex-boyfriend)
• Lev and Yara (siblings who have been denounced by the Seraphite cult, and who team up with Abby)

What can we expect to happen in The Last of Us Season 2?

The Last of Us Season 2: What is next in this post-apocalyptic drama television series?

In season 1 episode 8, ‘When we Are in Need’, a series of things ensure that make us question the state of humanity. While Ellie is hunting to get food, she encounters David and James, who offers her medicines in exchange for her captured meat. The next day, David and his men capture Ellie and take her to their place where the former reveals his cavernous secrets. He reveals his cannibalistic inclination which was completely satisfied in the dark. Ellie breaks his finger when he explains that she too, like him, has a violent heart.

With the help of medicines, Joel is able to recover faster and soon begins his search for Ellie. Later, the viewers catch a glimpse of Joel torturing David’s men so that they could give him his whereabouts. In an interesting turn of events, Ellie murders James in self-defence and now David is chasing her. To protect herself, Ellie murders David too with a butcher knife. Finally, Joel finds Ellie and they both embrace each other in the wilderness, with the former appeasing the latter’s unstable emotional state.

After leaving things with so much tension, the season finale brings some fruition to this duo. From Ellie’s capture to David’s cannibalistic inclination, the eighth episode showcased a darker side of humanity that remains indelible in our minds. In the ninth episode, “Look for the Light”, the show underscores Joel and Ellie’s relationship as they depend upon each other more than ever as they survive in the wilderness.

The Last of Us Season 2: What is next in this post-apocalyptic drama television series?

Based on the above-mentioned information, we can suspect what can happen in the second season. As mentioned previously, the second season will presumably be based on The Last of Us Part II. Digital Spy contends, “It could be that the second season of the show will focus mainly on Ellie, Dina, Abby and possibly Tommy, with Joel appearing only in early episodes before he’s killed off or in flashbacks later on…The lives lost to the Infected over the five-year time jump will likely infuse that sense of betrayal with even more pain, creating tension between the two. It will be interesting to see how their relationship has changed and deepened over the years, and how the truth of Joel’s actions that day will affect things.

During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Bella Ramsey expressed her excitement over exploring Ellie and Dina’s love story in season 2, including the impact it will have on Ellie’s relationship with Joel. She said, “I’ve watched a cut together, someone’s made a phenomenal — I don’t know how they do it — like an amazing edit of just the gameplay, like Ellie and Dina’s love story. So I’m excited to play that out.”

She further added, “[I’m excited by] the complexity of her relationship with Joel and how that gets decidedly more complex, and I’m looking forward to that. And the violence that ensues is thrilling, in a way. To get to maybe explore that in a really safe environment will be cool. But I am nervous about it, too.”

Interestingly, the creators of the show have hinted at a different Ellie who could emerge in season 2. In a conversation with Variety, Mazin stated, “We know what we’re going to do in terms of her costume and makeup and hair. But more importantly, we know the spirit and soul of the actor. She’s 19 now, which is the same age as Ellie in The Last of Us Part II… it will be different. It will be different just as this season was different. Sometimes it will be different radically… it won’t be exactly like the game. It will be the show that Neil and I want to make.”

For more release date updates on The Last of Us Season 2, stay tuned to Web News Observer!

Total
0
Shares