'The Last of Us' Season 2 to premiere in April
Season 2 is coming sooner than you think.
The second season of The Last of Us is set to premiere in April on HBO and Max, co-creator, writer, and executive producer Neil Druckmann announced.
Based on the two-part video game series by Naughty Dog, the second season promises to continue the thrilling and emotional journey of Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay who will return as Joel and Ellie.
Co-creator Craig Mazin emphasized that Season 2 would not attempt to recreate every detail of the game's Part II within the constraints of a seven-episode season, but instead want to "take more time" to tell a "much bigger" story.
“We just want to put people’s minds at ease that the idea that this season coming up is a little bit shorter than the first one is not because we’re taking less time to tell the stories, it’s because we want to take more time,” Mazin told Deadline. “The story that we’re telling is much bigger than the story of Season 1, 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.”
Given the scope of the story, Druckmann and Mazin hinted that there could be two more seasons.
“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 said. “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.”
“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,” Mazin continued.
Season 2 of The Last of Us occurs five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie find themselves grappling with the consequences of their past while facing new threats in a world increasingly fraught with danger.
Joining Pascal and Ramsay are Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Rutina Wesley as Maria, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Danny Ramirez as Manny, and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac. Catherine O’Hara also guest stars in the series.
The Last of Us is a co-production with Sony Pictures Television and executive producers Carolyn Strauss, Jacqueline Lesko, Cecil O’Connor, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, and Evan Wells. Halley Gross joins the team as writer and co-executive producer.
