‘The Last of Us’ cast and crew on how Season 2 takes it to the next level
The world hasn’t seen the last of The Last of Us—in fact, the second season is guaranteed to have you glued to your seat as the stakes get higher than ever for the survivors of HBO’s hit post-apocalyptic drama series.
The show, based on the video game franchise of the same name, continues to follow Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) five years after the events of the first season. But more than living in a world with flesh-hungry infected, this season gets more complicated as the two navigate their strained relationship.
In a roundtable interview, PhilSTAR L!fe had a chance to speak with the cast and crew of The Last of Us to find out how they upped the ante in this new season and breathed life into an otherwise hopeless story about society’s collapse.
To the next level
As new seasons of a show are often expected to be better than the last, showrunner Craig Mazin was faced with the challenge of satisfying both the old and new fans of the franchise. But being a fan of the games himself, Mazin made sure to carry on approaching the show with care and balance.
“The challenge is to maintain the level of quality that we found in season one and then hopefully exceed it. It's not enough for us to just try and be as good as we were. We really want to be better. We want to take risks,” he said.
“We want people to feel how audacious we are and how unafraid we are and how challenging we are. Not just for its own sake, but rather because it makes the story better,” he added.
Fellow showrunner and The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann echoed how they didn’t want to take the easy route in developing emotionally rich moments between the characters.
“There's a lot more infected this time around, there's a lot more big set pieces, but it's important to note, they're always character-driven. They're always moving the story forward,” he said.
Evolving creatures
Perhaps one of the more exciting features of The Last of Us that fans are looking forward to is the infected and whether they’ve become even more formidable foes in the world.
Mazin assured that they have taken all the lessons they’ve learned from the first season to refine the creatures and make for a more intense viewing experience.
This season, fans can also look forward to meeting a new kind of infected that “acts differently and poses more of a threat.”
But these creatures are not just made for the sake of shock value. As Mazin puts it, “We never put our characters in a situation with the infected just for excitement. We put it in there because it ultimately will be meaningful to them. It will either reflect something about them that has changed, or the experience itself will change them.”
All in all, the best way they could adapt The Last of Us is to capture the soul of it, and writer Halley Gross hopes that its themes can be a mirror to what’s happening in the real world.
“There’s a universality to always feeling like the world is scary, and The Last of Us just elevates that because of this post-apocalyptic world, but we all know what it's like to feel unsafe in our environment and so hopefully this show resonates that,” she said.
“We as a species have always been fighting for our own survival, and that is at the core of what this story is,” she added.
Channeling their characters
At the heart of the show’s engrossing story is a committed performance from Ramsey, who opened up about how their neurodivergence helped their acting craft during production.
“I think that I've just been observing people so intensely for all of my life that I sort of have all this like data now in my subconscious that comes to the surface when it needs to for different roles and make really specific nuanced emotions that I've picked up on,” the 21-year-old actor, who uses gender-neutral pronouns, said.
They added that fans can expect to see a more complex version of Ellie this season.
“In season one, she was protected by Joel, and sort of needed to be taken care of. She didn't like that, and I like to think that she could get through without Joel, and she did,” Ramsey said.
“But I think that in season two, she has even more of this protective energy over herself and the people around her and is establishing her independence. I think it was really nice to see that shift and see her evolve.”
Their co-star, Kaitlyn Dever, also had her work cut out for her with her role as Abby, the controversial dual protagonist of The Last of Us Part II.
But Dever was resolute in wanting to be a part of the adaptation. “It was never going to stop me from playing Abby and taking on this role because it was such a great opportunity for me as an actor.”
What was most important to her was being able to give justice to Abby’s compelling arc.
“I wanted to really make sure I was tackling her emotions and how she feels within. I think she's a woman who has gone through so much, and I consider her to be very, very strong and brave,” Dever said.
“She is also someone who has suffered through a lot and gone through grief, and so I was just making sure that I was able to show those parts of her with authenticity,” she continued. “I guess that was a bit of a challenge, just balancing all of that.”
But if there’s one thing that fans can expect from the show, it’s that the episodes will “dig a lot deeper in terms of emotion and character arc” of the survivors.
Action, adrenaline, and heart
The cast of The Last of Us wouldn’t be complete without Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley, who play Tommy and Maria, respectively. Much like their co-actors, the pair are equally excited to be a part of the show.
Luna, in particular, found much joy in all the physical aspects of his role. “It's just the run and the fight and the riding and the wielding of flamethrowers. If that doesn't get your adrenaline up, then you might need to check your pulse because it was wild.”
“They trained me for like three minutes, and then gave me a flamethrower. I’m like, ‘Thanks, man,’” he joked. “There's a lot of increased action in the season, and that was all very exciting.”
His sentiments were echoed by Wesley, who praised Maria for being an “amazing” character.
“She's a sharp shooter, she can fight, she can run, she can do all these things. She can ride a horse… I've always loved being able to do my own stunts, so it was just kind of fun to embrace all of that and embrace her strength,” Wesley said.
From its characters to its story and setting, The Last of Us is one rollercoaster of a show with lessons that can be learned and applied against the harsh challenges of reality, according to Isabela Merced and Young Mazino, who play Dina and Jesse, respectively.
“There's doom that's being spread, and I think when it's good art, they're not trying to take advantage of that communal fear that we're all feeling, but they're trying to help us understand ourselves in our everyday lives more and our morality that is put to the test,” Merced said.
“I think it scares people that people can be so inherently evil, but it also makes them hopeful when amidst all that evil, there's occasionally bright lights. And I'd say Dina and Jesse are those for Ellie,” she added.
“While in general, we exist in a somewhat civilized society, I think we all kind of feel how thin that line is between civilization and what can happen without community and civilization,” Mazino said.
The Last of Us Season 2 premiered on April 14 on Max.
