The Last of Us has been a smash hit for HBO since it started airing in early January 2023 - the first season is still ongoing, but its viewership has only been going up, instead of tailing off.
That’s seen the show already get renewed for a second season, meaning there will be more of its impressive post-apocalyptic story to enjoy and suffer through. Here are all the key details.
The Last of Us season 2 renewal
It was announced that we’d get more of The Last of Us on 27 January 2023, which was before the third episode of the show had even aired.
It had already been hinted at by creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann that they’d love to continue the story on TV (since there is a major sequel in the gaming world to call on), so this is great news for fans new and old.
The Last of Us season 2 release date
Given we’re still enjoying the first run of The Last of Us, don’t bank on Season 2 coming hot on its heels - this is a seriously big-budget show that will take a long while to write, film and post-produce.
We’d imagine that a likely window for the show will be sometime in either late 2024 or early 2025, as sad as that may sound. Even that would depend on things moving pretty quickly, frankly.
How to watch The Last of Us season 2
The good news when looking forward to another season of The Last of Us is that we can be pretty confident about where you’ll be able to watch it.
In the US, as an HBO exclusive it’ll air on HBO and through HBO Max for subscribers, with no other ways to watch it.
In the UK, though, things are more complicated - as they are now. Sky’s ongoing deal with HBO is likely to still be in place when the new season arrives, so it’ll be available through Sky if you have Sky Atlantic included in your package, as well as through Now with an Entertainment membership.
The Last of Us season 2 cast
From here on out, we’d be careful about spoilers if you don’t know the broad story of The Last of Us from the game it’s based on - even casting details can give you hints about who survives!
With that said, there are two big cast members that are highly likely to return for another season of the show - Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal as Ellie and Joel.
If the show follows the story of The Last of Us Part 2, which is what we expect broadly, there will be a time skip but Ramsey is ageing such that she would still likely retain the role.
We’d also expect to see Joel’s brother Tommy return, played again by Gabriel Luna.
Beyond that, not much can be gambled where the cast is concerned, especially as the TV show’s plotline diverges from the games in some small but key ways at various turns.
The Last of Us season 2 story
We can’t be certain about what the next season will do story-wise, but there is plenty of guesswork to work on.
Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have both said they’re keen to do another season of the show, but have implied that the story told by The Last of Us Part 2 would have to be split into more than one season.
This makes sense - it’s a surprisingly huge game that takes around 30 hours to play, and hops through locations and characters pretty quickly.
So, we’d expect that season 2 might tell part of that story, leading up to a major twist that occurs about halfway through the game, at an aquarium (for those who know what we’re talking about).
This could end the season on a huge cliffhanger and lead into a third season that would really play with people’s expectations and emotions.
