“The Last of Us” Season 2 Photos, New Details

A new feature piece at Entertainment Weekly has done a deep dive into the second season of HBO’s “The Last of Us” ahead of the show’s premiere in April. As previously revealed, the new season will clock in at a slightly shorter seven episodes, but as a result the pacing is a bit tighter this […] The post “The Last of Us” Season 2 Photos, New Details appeared first on Dark Horizons.

Feb 4, 2025 - 12:37

“The Last of Us” Season 2 Photos, New Details

A new feature piece at Entertainment Weekly has done a deep dive into the second season of HBO’s “The Last of Us” ahead of the show’s premiere in April.

As previously revealed, the new season will clock in at a slightly shorter seven episodes, but as a result the pacing is a bit tighter this time around. Showrunner Craig Mazin says:

“They are high-calorie, dense episodes. If you consider action and drama and scope to be the things that create an epic nature, each one of these episodes packs quite a wallop. You will not be bored.”

The new season adapts only a small part of “The Last of Us Part II” game. It was previously suggested that it would be wrapped by a third season, one which HBO has not officially greenlit as yet though conversations have been had. However, Mazin is now saying it will potentially go beyond that:

“I think it’s pretty likely that our story will extend past a season 3. How far past? I can’t say. And that’s not to say that there are not other stories that could be told, but this story is the one that Neil and I are telling.”

Game creator and co-showrunner Neil Druckmann adds:”We know what we need to do going forward, but we couldn’t tell you right now exactly how many episodes or how many seasons it would take to get there.”

Part of that is due to the inclusion of new elements and changes, something that worked out great with the first season’s acclaimed third episode. Here it will include more of the game’s lore and deleted material that made its debut in the remastered edition of the second game, with Druckmann teasing that it’s “pretty brutal, but I’m very excited for people to see it”.

It also turns out there’s one key piece of casting not yet revealed, and it ties to a character spoken about in the game but not necessarily shown. Druckmann says:

“There is a pretty prominent character that is talked a lot about in the game, similar to what we did with Frank [Murray Bartlett] in season 1, that is in this season. There’s a very, very cool casting that I hope we can talk about soon.”

The second game famously plays with perspective and doesn’t unfold in an entirely linear way, boasting multiple flashbacks and covering different events unfolding simultaneously. The footage from the trailers, and the lack of several casting reveals (such as certain siblings), suggest they plan to do the new season more chronologically. However, that doesn’t mean they’re not going to play around with the structure:

Druckmann: “A big part of the theme of the second game is about perspective, how someone’s hero could be someone else’s villain and vice versa. It’s weird to talk about a story where its structure could be a spoiler. I don’t even know if it’s worth mentioning where we landed because I think that’s part of the fun for people familiar with the game to see how we approached that challenge in the show. I will just say that we gave it a lot of thought and tried different things. There are some deviations of where we place things.”
Mazin: “We certainly are going to mess around with time the way it was in the source material, but as Neil said, we messed around in ways that we felt were appropriate for the show. When I say ‘messed around,’ I mean scientifically determined in a narrative way what we thought would be most impactful.”

The pair also discussed one of the biggest differences from the game – the difference in the physique of Abby. In the game, Abby is essentially a brick wall – tall, muscular and brutish. Kaitlyn Dever, who is playing the role in the TV series, is fit and athletic but not hugely different from Ellie (Bella Ramsey) size wise.

Druckmann says making her physically huge wasn’t a priority here as “there’s not as much violent action moment to moment” as there is in the game where the action dominates the drama. He adds: “Kaitlyn has the spirit of the game in her.”

Mazin says with the series comes the opportunity to delve into a physically more vulnerable but spiritually stronger Abby. He adds: “And then the question is, ‘Where does her formidable nature come from and how does it manifest?’ That’s something that will be explored now and later.”

For the full piece, head over to EW.com.