HBO has revealed that the second season of The Last of Us, its hugely popular zombie drama based on the video games from Naughty Dog, will premiere on Sunday, April 13 at 9:00 p.m. EST. We would like it on record that we called this over a month ago, after HBO revealed that new episodes would start dropping in April. We already knew that the third season of The White Lotus, another of HBO's heavy hitters, was going to run through Sunday, April 6. HBO likes to roll from one big Sunday night show to the next, and The Last of Us was the only choice. Nice try, HBO. Nice try.
Anyway, The Last of Us season 2 will pick up where season 1 left off: the surrogate father-daughter dream team of Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) have settled in the relatively stable and safe community of Jackson, Wyoming after a harrowing cross-country journey beset by zombie attacks and run-ins with the worst kinds of people the human race has to offer. But there's trouble brewing between Ellie and Joel, who never told her about his morally dubious actions in the season 1 finale. Season 2 will pick up five years later, and things have become strained between the pair. So in addition to fungal zombies trying to eat their faces and post-apocalyptic scavengers trying to steal their lives, now they have to endure interpersonal awkwardness.
In addition to Pascal and Ramsey, other returning cast members include Gabriel Luna as Joel's brother Tommy and Ruina Wesley as his wife Maria. There are also a number of new characters who will be instantly recognizable to anyone who's played The Last of Us Part II. If you haven't, we're not going to spoil anything:
- Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
- Isabela Merced as Dina
- Young Mazino as Jesse
- Ariela Barer as Mel
- Tati Gabrielle as Nora
- Spencer Lord as Owen
- Danny Ramirez as Manny
- Jeffrey Wright as Isaac
Also, comedy legend Catherine O’Hara will play a new character who looks like she's serving as some kind of therapist for Joel. Heaven knows he needs one.
The Last of Us season 2 will take place five years after season 1
HBO also released a few new character posters, including ones for Joel and Ellie:
We also get a poster for Abby, who will be a very important character. Why is she so important? You'll get nothing from me, keep it moving:
The posters make pretty heavy use of symbolism. Joel is standing on a watch given to him by his daughter Sarah, who died back when the zombie apocalypse first started, before he met Ellie. Ellie is standing on a giant guitar, which will have thematic resonance later on for reasons I can't get into. And Abby is standing on a Firefly insignia; remember that the Fireflies were a revolutionary militia group that Joel and Ellie had run-ins with in season 1. In the finale, Joel slaughtered a hospital full of Fireflies in order to save Ellie's life, even though sacrificing her could have meant ending the zombie plague.
All will be explained when The Last of Us season 2 kicks off on HBO and Max on Sunday, April 13. The second season will run for seven episodes. That's fewer than we got in the first season, but producers promise that they have a plan:
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