The Last of Us season 2: cast, plot, release window, everything we know

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Season 2 of The Last of Us has officially launched and there are some exciting new features in store. Here’s what we know, from the release window to news on casting, storyline, and more.

Fans trembled at the announcement of a live-action adaptation of the iconic video game The Last of Us. Sony’s spearhead for its consoles, the exclusive Playstation had won unanimous critical acclaim by offering a post-apocalyptic survival story with a well-crafted storyline and endearing characters. And while most game adaptations usually end badly, players feared for the work of the Naughty Dog studio.

And yet! HBO won its bet by releasing the series in live action, obtaining excellent reception. Thanks to its actors, but also to the participation of the creator of the games Neil Druckmann and the screenwriter Craig Mazin (Chernobyl), or even a substantial budget, it doesn’t matter: the results are there, the spectators loved it. And to their delight, season 2 has been made official.

After a breathtaking finale, the wait began for the next chapter in Joel and Ellie’s story. We tell you everything we know about season 2 of The Last of Us.

Summary

Is there a release window for The Last of Us season 2?

The End of the World Requires Patience: Season 2 of The Last of Us is officially confirmed for release in 2025, but no specific release date has yet been given.

HBO confirmed the series’ release window in its 2024 “The One To Watch”promotional video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6yoTKa58Qw

If the start date of filming was uncertain for a long time, the “A Night in the Writer’s Room” panel allowed us to finally confirm it. As reported by Variety, Craig Mazin declared that the cameras would start rolling on February 12, 2024.

The Last of Us season 2 cast: who is in it?

Although some roles are yet to be confirmed, you can expect The Last of Us season 2 cast to include:

  • Bella Ramsey as Ellie
  • Pedro Pascal as Joel
  • Gabriel Luna as Tommy
  • Rutina Wesley as Maria
  • Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
  • Young Mazino as Jesse
  • Isabela Merced as Dina
  • Spencer Lord as Owen
  • Danny Ramirez as Manny
  • Ariela Barer as Mel
  • Tati Gabrielle as Nora
  • Catherine O’Hara in an undisclosed role

Catherine O’Hara should, according to Daniel Richtman, play Gail, a brand new character who will appear for three episodes.

During an appearance on ” The Last of Pods ” podcast, Ramsey said: “I’m really excited. It still seems surreal to me that it’s happening again. But also, I don’t want to go in there comparing it to the experience of the first season, because Season 1 of The Last of Us was the best year of my life, and it’s not going to be the same. I just have to go into it thinking it’s season 2. And I love season 1, but it’s just going to be different. I’m really excited. I just, yeah, want to be back in Canada with Craig Mazin and Pedro [Pascal]. It’s going to be really nice.”

In a new interview with L’Officiel, Ramsey talked about what excites them most about season 2. “I’m very open to everything. I can’t wait to see how Craig and Neil adapt the story from the second game into another season. What I’m looking forward to is fighting more, but that’s just for me, not really for Ellie,” she clarifies.

New characters in season 2 of The Last of Us

Depending on what will be adapted in the second season, compared to part 2 of the video games, there are still a few roles to be distributed, including:

  • Abby
  • ignoble
  • Jesse
  • Lev
  • Children
  • Manny

Fans were convinced they saw Dina in episode 6 of the first season, and it was almost confirmed by the showrunners, but it’s unclear if the same actress will return.

The hypotheses mainly surrounded Abby, with Craig Mazin having implied that she had been chosen while keeping the information secret for a long time about the final decision. Finally, the revelation was made: it will be actress Kaitlyn Dever, star of Hunted on Disney+, who will play the young woman and face the ire of spectators. What the voice actor for the English version of the game, Laura Bailey, supported in a tweet:

“Congratulations, Kaitlyn! So excited to see Abby’s progress with your performance! Let me know if you need a training partner.”

We will not go into spoilers in this section, but it is reasonable to specify that the character will be the antagonist of the second part… and that his presence risks creating as much controversy as with the video game.

Neil Druckmann had also teased his arrival in the series with a poster showing his arm armed with a hammer. Subsequently, the video game creator and showrunner announced that he was not afraid of the outcry from fans over the adaptation into the series, even saying that he was looking forward to discovering the reception of the season 2.

“Our casting process for season two has been the same as season one: we are looking for world-class actors who embody the soul of the characters from the source material,” said series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann [via Variety ]. “Nothing is more important than talent, and we are thrilled to have an acclaimed artist like Kaitlyn join Pedro, Bella and the rest of our family.”

Craig Mazin confirmed that there will be no replacement actors in season 2. “We won’t do an ellipse like in House of the Dragon. Those were very significant age jumps, and we’re not there yet. So, no actor replacements will take place. Not while I’m here,” he told Collider.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he also said: “Will there be uproar? Yes, probably. There generally are, starting even with the casting. We knew they were the best for their role, but they had to endure months of terrible comments from people on social media until the public saw what we had done. For me, this is the crucial point. We don’t act to make people happy on social media or to avoid making them angry. We’re just doing what we think is right, and we hope people will follow us on the journey and enjoy it.”

Young Mazino, who starred in Netflix’s Golden Globe-winning series Beef, has been added to the cast as Jesse: “Young is one of those rare actors who seems like an obvious choice as soon as We see it. We are so lucky to have him, and we can’t wait for audiences to see him shine in our series,” added Mazin and Druckmann, according to Variety.

The announcement of the choice for the interpreter of the role of Dina is more recent: it will be the actress Isabela Merced, star of Dora and the Lost City, who will lend her features to the character.

Who will direct season 2 of The Last of Us?

The previous showrunners will still be present: Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann will continue their work in the same vein as season 1, and will direct certain episodes of season 2.

Peter Hoar, also present from the start, will be back. He notably directed the moving episode about Bill and Frank, “Longtemps…” (or “Long, Long, Time” in the original version).

According to Deadline, Mark Mylod from the series Succession is now part of the quartet of new directors for season 2 of The Last of Us. The participation of the English filmmaker is a great asset for the series, given its recent successes.

“Mark Mylod (Succession) will direct episodes of The Last of Us Season 2. / Nina Lopez-Corrado (Perry Mason), Stephen Williams (Watchmen), Kate Herron (Loki) and Peter Hoar (The Last of Us Episode 3) will direct also episodes.”

In addition to Mark Mylod, we will also have to count on Nina Lopez-Corrado and Stephen Williams, from the Perry Mason and Watchmen series, as well as Kate Herron whose work was noticed on Sex Education and Loki.

The Last of Us season 2 plot: what should you expect?

Before we begin, be warned: we are going to discuss the plot of The Last of Us Part 2, so expect major spoilers in this section.

pedro pascal the last of us
hbo

If season 2 follows part 2, the series will jump forward five years. Joel and Ellie live together in Jackson, but their relationship deteriorates when Joel admits to lying about the Fireflies at the hospital.

One stormy snowy day, Joel and Tommy are on patrol and rescue a girl from an infected horde. When they reach an outpost, they are ambushed by his group, part of the Washington Liberation Front.

The girl is Abby, the daughter of the Fireflies doctor that Joel murdered while saving Ellie from the hospital in Salt Lake City.

When Joel and Tommy don’t return to Jackson, Ellie and Dina go looking for them. When Ellie reaches the same outpost, she is forced to watch as Abby beats Joel to death with a golf club. She swears revenge and sets off in pursuit of Abby.

Speaking to GQ in February 2023, Ramsey said of talking with the writers for season 2: “It was so cool to hear them talk about ideas – I watched quite a bit of gameplay from the second game, just because that I was curious. I think [the series] will most likely follow the plot of the games again. I don’t think there’s much need to fill in the gaps.”

The star said she’s excited for Ellie and Dina’s story, but – like the rest of us – she’s dreading Joel’s death on the show. This is what she said during an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast: “I’m looking forward to it, and the violence that comes from it is thrilling in a way. Being able to explore this aspect in a really safe environment would be cool but it makes me nervous too. I know what’s happening in the second game, and I’m dreading potentially being without Pedro for a while. That would be really sad.”

We know that Season 2 will, at least, begin to tell the story of the second part, but it has a considerably greater scope compared to the first game. According to Craig Mazin, it is likely that several seasons will be required to come to end of the story.

“The amount of story that’s left, that we haven’t covered, amounts to more than just one season. So yeah, assuming we can continue, the idea would be to do more than just one more season,” he told Consequence.

In an interview with GQ, Neil Druckmann confirmed that part two will be adapted over multiple seasons. And Craig Mazin told Deadline: “The show won’t end with season 2 unless people don’t watch it and we get canceled.”

Also expect a lot more infected and a bigger budget. But while Season 2 may deviate slightly from the source material, as we saw with Bill and Frank, Mazin and Druckmann aren’t going to “change anything”about their process. “I mean, the way we did it worked. We worked very well together,” they told Deadline.

“We adapted where we wanted to adapt, and how we wanted to adapt. We stayed close to the base. Sometimes we drifted apart, but this process worked very well. So we don’t change anything. We will definitely also push the technology we use forward. We learned so much, especially when it came to the infected and how to better deliver scenes with them.”

Is there a trailer for The Last of Us season 2?

No, there are no images or trailers for The Last of Us season 2 at the moment.

As filming has not started, we should not expect images of the actors in action to reach us straight away. But it is still possible to rewatch the trailer for part 2 of the video game, just to get a taste:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DHfB_xfQBQ

We will update this space when new information regarding The Last of Us season 2 is released.

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