More cast news!

From filming teasers to cast announcements, excitement for The Last of Us season two has been building.

The latest update has come from show co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, who revealed the episode count with a confirmation that the second run will span seven episodes.

This will make it shorter than the first season, but Mazin has reassured fans (via Deadline) that this “is not because we’re taking less time to tell the stories”.

“The story that we’re telling [in season two] is much bigger than the story of season one, there’s just a lot more going on. It’s a lot harder to produce, but we want every episode to feel like its own blockbuster, to be honest with you”.

What’s more, it sounds like we’re in for some extended episodes within that run of seven.

“There’s an episode [in season two] that is going to be again closer to — I don’t know if I would say feature length but quite big,” Mazin said. “I like generally hitting about an hour, it’s a great length. I love working in that format. What we don’t want to do is, say, a season of seven episodes where each episode is 90 minutes; part of why we’re doing seven episodes is finding that nice line”.

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The Last of Us was one of the biggest breakthrough hits of 2023 (and with very good reason). The premiere season of the HBO series made sure we became heartbreakingly invested in the relationship between Joel (Pablo Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Following that intense episode-nine finale, we simply need to know what will happen next — even if we still have nightmares about fungus people and have since banned mushrooms from the weekly food shop.

Of course, since the series is a video game adaptation, many know what could happen next should The Last of Us season two follow the plot of the Last of Us Part II game.

However – particularly for a show that has a habit of killing off its characters just as we’ve begun to care for them – we will do our best to keep the most spoiler-y stuff to ourselves so as not to ruin your viewing experience when season two eventually hits our screens.

With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about the second season of The Last of Us and when we can expect new episodes.

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When is The Last of Us season 2 coming out?

As far as we can tell, The Last of Us season two release date will land sometime in 2025.

HBO boss Casey Bloys confirmed at a Variety event back in November 2023 that production was expected to start in February 2024 – which turned out to be right on track.

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How many The Last of Us season 2 episodes are there?

As we mentioned above, it’s been confirmed by show bosses that there will be a total of seven episodes in the second season of The Last of Us.

As it turns out, this is down to an abundance of source material – too much to fit into one run of episodes, apparently.

“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin has told Deadline. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

That brings us nicely onto…

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How many seasons of The Last of Us will there be?

The suggestion here is that after this “breakpoint”, which will inform the season two finale, there’ll be much more of the story to explore – offering a roadmap towards future seasons.

As of right now, The Last of Us has only officially been announced to have two seasons. But that doesn’t mean that creative plans aren’t being made.

“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because we’re taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in season one, too,” Mazin said to Deadline. “We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4.”

Fine by us!

This follows some quotes from HBO’s Head of Drama Francesca Orsi, published in May 2023 (via Deadline), which also indicated that a third season had been discussed.

“There’s no guarantee at this point that we’ll have a season three, but I know that they both have a vision for season three,” Orsi said, referencing the creators.

Craig Mazin also told The Hollywood Reporter, back in August 2023, that “four seems like a good number.”

So at this point, all signs point to there being more from The Last of Us beyond season two. But that’s best-case scenario, as Mazin also previously told Deadline that this will depend on ratings and audience appetite.

“There’s more story, so this show will not end with season two unless people don’t watch it, and we’ll get cancelled,” he said.

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The Last of Us season 2 filming updates

We know filming for The Last of Us is under way, as it was previously revealed that production had begun on the HBO show in February 2024, and there’s even been a look at some of the actors together behind the scenes.

All eyes have been on Bella Ramsey’s season two return as Ellie, as well as the addition of the popular video game character Dina, who will be played by Isabela Merced.

Merced has opened up about the “chemistry” that she has with Ramsey on set, as the pair have been filming scenes together.

“Bella and I never did a chemistry read,” she told Buzzfeed in a recent interview. “Bella and I never met before we went into The Last of Us, so it was a big risk. And we were aware of that. But ever since watching the first season, I knew I was in good hands with Bella.

“Bella’s extremely charming, extremely personable, a natural actor. So believable. Like, even if I sucked as an actor, you’re working with someone like that. It’s hard to look bad. I’m really excited. Personally, in my opinion, and from what we’ve heard from like the studio and Craig [Mazin] and stuff, I feel like this could potentially be, like, an iconic sapphic television story.”

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The actor also teased that “there’s a scene in particular that I think is going to be on everyone’s Twitter feed.”

Okay, we officially cannot wait.

The Last of Us‘ co-lead Pedro Pascal has also talked about how “amazing” it is to be working on the show again.

“It’s incredible to be back home with them and creatively and everybody, our entire crew, they’re working harder than I could even imagine, even harder than our first season, which is close to impossible,” he said.

Despite prior rumours that Pascal had already finished filming for the second season, causing some confusion among fans, HBO denied it to be the case, telling IGN that the reports were “not accurate”.

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Who has been cast in The Last of Us season 2?

As the central characters of the story, Joel (Pascal) and Ellie (Ramsey) will, of course, be back.

When it comes to the rest of the season two cast, though, things get a little trickier as a lot depends on how much of the source material is used and what season two will cover.

Talking about The Last of Us‘ debut season (via Consequence), Mazin confirmed: “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.”

True to form, we saw this play out with Ellie and Riley’s tragic love story during the events of episode seven in season one of the show. The first season intersected their scenes in the abandoned mall with scenes of Ellie trying to find medical supplies for an injured Joel.

Both events took place in The Last of Us: Left Behind, a downloadable expansion pack to the original game.

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Since both the first game and the add-on have now been featured in season one, that would tally with season two starting with some of the events of the second game, The Last of Us Part II.

This story once again featured Joel’s brother Tommy, who was played by Gabriel Luna in season one, so he’ll likely be back in season two in one way or another.

When it comes to new faces in the on-screen franchise, Jeffrey Wright is the latest actor to be announced – and he’s set to reprise his role from the games.

He will take on the villainous Isaac Dixon, which is the part that Wright portrayed through motion capture in the second video game, The Last of Us Part II.

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Tati Gabrielle (who you’ll probably recognise from Netflix hits Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and, more recently, You) and Spencer Lord are new additions to be confirmed for the cast, along with Danny Ramirez and Ariela Barer. They are each expected to take on various roles from the video game.

Catherine O’Hara has also been announced to be joining The Last of Us season two – however, there’s some secrecy surrounding the details of her character.

In terms of established character introductions from the source material, we know that we are set to meet Abby Anderson in season two.

Craig Mazin previously teased that “Abby was the first role that we wanted to tackle” when it came to new actors to bring on board (via The Hollywood Reporter).

“We’ve got a pretty good track record of making major cast announcements and people going, ‘Really?’, which will probably continue,” he also teased.

Following much anticipation around who they could cast in that key role, it’s now been officially announced that it will be Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart and No One Will Save You).

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More The Last of Us season two cast news followed, with Young Mazino, star of Netflix’s Beef, confirmed to be taking the role of Jesse.

“Young is one of those rare actors who is immediately undeniable the moment you see him,” series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann said in response to the announcement. “We’re so lucky to have him, and we can’t wait for the audience to see Young shine in our show.”

As previously mentioned, Ellie’s girlfriend Dina will also appear in season two and will be played by Isabela Merced.

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Bella Ramsey has spoken about being “really excited” to bring this lesbian romance to our screens in season two, after learning that their The Last of Us character was involved in a lesbian relationship.

“I can’t wait to do that and to explore that story. It’s gonna be a lot of fun,” Bella told Pink News.

As for the possibility of other returning characters from The Last of Us‘ first nine episodes, most of them didn’t make it out alive (spoilers follow if you’re yet to finish season one).

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Bill and Frank were among some of the most impactful characters, with their dedicated episode winning praise from both critics and viewers.

Of course, the couple met a devastating end in season one. The same can be said for most of the others we met along Joel and Ellie’s way – including Tess (Anna Torv), Riley (Storm Reid), Sam (Keivonn Montreal Woodard), Henry (Lamar Johnson) and Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey).

It sounds like the door has been left open for those faces to potentially pop up again in The Last of Us season two, particularly when it comes to flashbacks.

“There’s always a chance for everything,” Mazin confirmed to Deadline. “With us, you never know, and we obviously don’t confine ourselves by timelines. People who are dead sometimes reappear, and sometimes we meet people that we didn’t even know, and then we find out that they are somebody.”

However, Bill and Frank fans might be disappointed to learn that Craig Mazin has ruled out their return in season two.

“I’m very proud of the episode we did with Bill and Frank,” he said. “There won’t be more Bill and Frank.”

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How old was Ellie in The Last of Us 2, and will there be a time jump?

There was a five-year time jump between the two games, and it sounds like the show bosses are planning to follow this timeline.

In response to a minority of the fandom that held concerns surrounding Bella Ramsey’s initial casting as Ellie, particularly concerning the character’s age in the second season, showrunner and game creator Neil Druckmann wanted to “put this thing to rest” and commit to their decision-making.

“One of the things about the casting process that’s tough is that we invite people to join us on this process, and we know everything [about the secrets of the production] and nobody else knows anything except what they know, which is the game,” Mazin previously explained (via Entertainment Weekly).

“We know what we’re gonna do in terms of costume and makeup and hair, but more importantly, we also know the spirit and soul of the actor.”

Mazin also pointed out that Bella Ramsey is closer to the age Ellie was in the second video game.

Speaking of the actress who played Ellie in the video games, Druckmann added: “When we made the game, I felt we were incredibly lucky. It was like lightning in the bottle that we found Ashley Johnson, and I can’t imagine that version of Ellie being anybody else. And then somehow we got lightning in the bottle again with Bella.”

He added that “the only way we would ever, ever consider re-casting Bella” is if Bella decided they didn’t want to work on the show anymore. And even then, Druckmann said, they might “force” Bella to “come back to season two” anyway.

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Who will direct The Last of Us season 2?

There’s an impressive team of behind-the-camera talent coming on board for season two.

Emmy-winning director of fellow HBO juggernaut Succession Mark Mylod has been announced, and Deadline reports that he’ll be joined in the director’s seat by Kate Herron (of Disney+ show Loki), Stephen Williams (producer for Watchmen and Lost) and Nina Lopez-Corrado (The Mentalist).

They will join returning director Peter Hoar, whose work on the much-celebrated third episode of season one earned an Emmy nomination and who was instrumental behind the scenes of Russell T Davies’ It’s a Sin. Naturally, The Last of Us’ co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann will also be involved in directing again.

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What will happen in The Last of Us season 2?

In terms of the plot of its second run, Mazin noted that The Last of Us season two will be decidedly different, in some places, from the Part II game.

“It will be different just as this season was different [from the first game],” he also said at the virtual press conference ahead of the season one finale.

“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…”

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

It will likely be some time before new footage is available for a trailer.

We’ll be keeping you posted with all the latest news and updates for The Last of Us season two as we get them — including first-look images and teaser clips. So, watch this space.

The Last of Us airs on HBO in the US and on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK.