The Last of Us season 2 will "get into questions of retribution and revenge"

Although they're getting started a bit later than originally intended, The Last of Us season 2 is on the way. We've heard a lot lately about new actors joining the cast, and filming begins in February.

Speaking about the upcoming season at last night's Emmy Awards, HBO CEO Casey Bloys — who has read five scripts — sounded excited. “It’s great,” he told Deadline. “It is bigger, gets into questions of retribution and revenge, it follows the video game and has big themes, big action. [Creators] Craig [Mazin], Neil [Druckmann] and the team are doing a spectacular job.”

If you've played the video game The Last of Us Part II from Naughty Dog, you know he's not kidding. We won't spoil anything, but people get hurt and lots of questions about retribution and revenge get asked. By the end of the game, you are all revenged out. Hopefully the show can summon the same kind of emotional power.

Beef star Young Mazino talks joining the cast of The Last of Us

One of the newcomers in the line of fire is Jesse, a friend of lead character Ellie (Bella Ramsey). He'll be played by Young Mazino, who starred in the Netflix show Beef, which won a boatload of Emmys last night. “After the [actors] strike ended, I was able to get a meeting with the showrunners and we kind of just shopped it up," Mazino told Variety. "I played the video game before the meeting and we had a long talk about their process and what they’re looking for. I guess Beef pushed me the rest of the way."

Mazino called the game “phenomenal” and said he was training for horseback riding and using a firearm, things you need to do when living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland inhabited by zombies. “I haven’t met Pedro [Pascal] or Bella,” he said. “I have DM’d Bella, but I haven’t had the pleasure of talking to them, but I will soon.”

Speaking to ET, Mazino cautioned that the show is "an adaptation, it's not gonna be scene for scene."

"This is its own entity. So, hopefully, I bring enough of my own energy into the character," he adds. "I just know I gotta know how to shoot guns and ride horses."

I don't think any fans expected The Last of Us season 2 to adapt the video game beat for beat, but I wonder how many changes they're making. The first season made some changes to the original Last of Us game, but anyone who played it can tell you that it was, by and large, very faithful. Will season 2 of the show go a little further afield? The structure of the second game is more complicated, so it may have to.

"I'm just happy to be employed and happy to have a job. The strike was brutal," Mazino continued. "I just can't wait to get back on the set. That's really all it is. But also to be on a set likeThe Last of Us, with visionary show [creators] like Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann — I can't wait to get to work."

And we can't wait to watch, probably sometime in 2025.

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