The second season of The Last of Us wrapped up this past Sunday, and while the the finale was entertaining, it left lots of questions unanswered. That's not completely unusual for a season finale, but it's hard to swallow in an age when waits between new seasons of TV are growing and longer and longer, especially for big-budget tentpole shows like The Last of Us.
We don't know exactly when The Last of Us season 3 will premiere on HBO and HBO Max, but we know the production hasn't started, which in a way means it's already behind. A show like this, with huge sets and complicated action sequences, takes a long time to set up, shoot and edit, so the sooner they get rolling, the happier fans will be.
We're getting some conflicting information about when that might be. Speaking earlier this month, Isabela Merced — who plays Dina on the show — said that, so far as she knows, filming will start "next year." If shooting on The Last of Us indeed doesn't begin until 2026, there's basically no hope of us watching new episodes before 2027, which means we're in for a wait of around two years or more.
But there are other reports. Dextero reports that filming is set to begin "June 30, specifically" in Vancouver. They seem confident in that prediction, although I'm not sure where they're getting their information.
Finally, we have The Last of Us production designer Don Macaulay, who wrote on his Instagram that prep for season 3 will "start very soon."
So when will The Last of Us season 3 start shooting? When will it premiere?
I hope I'm wrong, but I'd be surprised if the cameras started rolling on The Last of Us season 3 in June. On a show as huge as The Last of Us, I would have expected to see sets or something go up by now if shooting was that imminent. But maybe they're planning to do something on location and don't need a lot of prep.
It would certainly be better for the series if it shot in June. I feel like enthusiasm for the second season of the show wasn't as fervent as for the first. If you buy that, you could chock it up to some fans not liking the direction the story took, but I also think having to wait just over two years between seasons 1 and 2 dimmed excitement a bit. How could it not? People are going to find other things get interested in during such a long break.
If HBO were smart, they would do everything they could to make the waits between seasons of their major tentpole shows as short as possible. I realize these shows are complicated and expensive to make, but it's their best interest to renew them as early as possible, and hopefully to start shooting episodes of the next season before the current one has wrapped up. We know it's possible; Netflix just started filming the third season of Avatar: The Last Airbender and the second season isn't even out yet. For HBO, I feel like it wouldn't be too big of a risk to plan ahead in that way for sure-fire hits like The Last of Us and House of the Dragon.
I hope HBO takes the note. In the meanwhile, I'm betting that The Last of Us season 3 won't be out until sometime in 2027. If HBO wants to prove me wrong, I'll be very grateful.
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