When is The Last of Us season 2 release date? The TV series adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game The Last of Us has absolutely been one of the hits of 2023 so far on the small screen. The series has given us big emotions, shocking violence, and more zombies than you can shake a sadly useless stick at.
The Last of Us season 1 followed Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) on a treacherous journey through the aftermath of a global surge in infections caused by the Cordyceps fungus, creating The Last of Us zombies. We won’t be forgetting the Clickers or Bloaters in a hurry.
We know you can’t wait for the best TV series of the year to return, so we’ve delved far beyond the QZ to find out everything we can about The Last of Us season 2 release date and the plot of the next chapter of the thriller series, as well as who will be in The Last of Us cast next time around.
The Last of Us season 2 release date speculation
The Last of Us season 2 will likely be released at the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025, but we can’t get any more specific than that at this time.
HBO acted quickly to renew the drama series after the positive reaction to The Last of Us season 1, giving it the green light in January 2023, just a couple of weeks after the first episode. The team behind the show are already hard at work on The Last of Us season 2, with Bella Ramsey confirming to GQ that she got a chance to visit the writers’ room in Los Angeles in February 2023.
She said: “It was so cool to hear them talk about ideas — I’ve watched quite a lot of the gameplay of the second game, just because I’ve been curious. I think [the show] will most likely follow the storyline of the games again. I don’t think there’s much need to fill in the gaps.”
We’ll update this guide when we know more about The Last of Us season 2 release date. We’d guess that if the writing process has been underway for several months already, filming could happen before the end of 2023, and the show could well be back on our screens by the tail end of 2024.
Bella Ramsey agrees with us, revealing in a March 2023 interview that she expects to begin filming in late 2023 and that an “end of 2024, early 2025” is a realistic The Last of Us season 2 release date.
Unfortunately, like a lot of TV series, The Last of Us season 2 has stopped production while the 2023 Writer Strike is ongoing, so the show will probably be delayed.
The Last of Us season 2 cast speculation
We don’t have confirmation of The Last of Us season 2 cast, but Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are likely to return as Joel and Ellie.
Ramsey said in her GQ interview that she believes the series will closely follow the plot of The Last of Us Part II, which means there’s plenty more for her and Pascal to do. Craig Mazin confirmed at a press conference (via Variety) that Ramsey will indeed be back, despite the time jump in the second game’s story.
If, as we expect, The Last of Us season 2 follows the plot of the second game, then Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) will be back too.
Obviously, the nature of a story like this does not lend itself to a big and long-running ensemble. Characters don’t tend to last very long once the infected turn up. Often, those cruel showrunners give us just long enough to fall in love with characters like Riley, Tess, or Bill and Frank before their time cruelly ends.
The Last of Us season 2 cast list is likely to include:
- Pedro Pascal as Joel
- Bella Ramsey as Ellie
- Gabriel Luna as Tommy
The Last of Us season 2 trailer speculation
There is no The Last of Us season 2 trailer just yet, and there won’t be for quite some time, as we’re only just coming to the end of The Last of Us season 1 and filming hasn’t started.
However, to get a feel for the show, it’s worth revisiting the trailer for The Last of Us season 1, which introduces the characters and the post-apocalyptic world in which the series takes place.
The Last of Us season 2 plot speculation
We don’t know The Last of Us season 2 plot for sure, but it is likely to follow the plot of video game sequel The Last of Us Part II.
Co-creator and showrunner Craig Mazin told Collider that The Last of Us season 1 “encompassed” the first game, but he said that it is possible that it might take more than one more season to tell the story of The Last of Us Part II in the wake of The Last of Us episode 9.
“The story that remains, that continues forth in the work that Naughty Dog’s done on the second game, is a lot. Probably the amount of remaining story would take us more than a season to tell. But definitely, I don’t see this as something that runs on and on and on. We don’t have that ambition. Our ambition is to tell the story that exists, as best as we can, in a different medium.”
Mazin has even suggested that season 2 won’t be the end of The Last of Us, saying in April 2023 that the show will be “around for a while” yet.
We don’t want to spoil too much of the plot of The Last of Us Part II for those who have not played the game, but it features a four-year time jump from the end of the first game and explores the clashes between Joel and Ellie and a militia group of former Fireflies led by a character called Abby.
Mazin said in the press conference reported by Variety that fans can expect more beasties next time around. He said: “There is more The Last of Us to come. It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later. And perhaps different kinds.”
As for the adaptation process, Mazin admitted he feels a “constant drumbeat of anxiety” at the prospect of disappointing fans.
He added: “Just know, I am also very anxious. If you’re anxious about something, I’m probably anxious about it, which means we’re talking about it and thinking about it. We will present things, but it will be different, just as this season was different. Sometimes it will be different radically, and sometimes it will be barely different at all, but it’s going to be different. 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.”
So that’s everything we know about The Last of Us season 2 for now, but we’ll keep this guide updated when we have more to tell you about the future.
In the meantime, check out our lists of the best video game movies, the best zombie movies, and the best thriller movies – as well as the best streaming services to watch all of these and the new movies coming in 2023. Finally, you’ve got to check out our list of the best movies ever made.
