The first season of HBO's The Last of Us adapted the whole of the first Last of Us video game, about a pair of survivors named Joel and Ellie making their way across the United States in the wake of a brutal zombie apocalypse. The second season starts to adapt the second game, which begins with a bang. (Beware SPOILERS incoming!) Joel dies early on, with Ellie taking over as the main character as she sets out on a revenge mission.
But the second game is bigger than the first, and won't fit into one seasons. We already know that the show will return for a third season, but is that where the series will end?
Showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann haven't said anything definitive, although Mazin definitely sounded like he has a plan in mind when talking to Collider about the latest episode. "I think there’s a decent chance that Season 3 will be longer than Season 2, just because the manner of that narrative and the opportunities it affords us are a little different," he said. The thing about Joel’s death is that it’s so impactful. It’s such a narrative nuclear bomb that it’s hard to wander away from it. We can’t really take a break and move off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story. I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for Season 3. I think we’ll have a little more room there."
"But certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome."
So there you go: if Craig Mazin has his way, The Last of Us TV show will run for four seasons. The showrunners have said that they won't go beyond the source material, so once they've told the story of The Last of Us Part II video game, that's it. Maybe Naughty Dog will eventually get around to producing The Last of Us Part III and they can revisit things, but that'll be then.
The Last of Us boss thinks season 3 will be "longer" than season 2
Although I wonder if they could tell the rest of the story in season 3 if HBO just gave them more episodes. The first season of The Last of Us had nine episodes, a number most fans were willing to accept. Season 2 is only seven episodes, which feels on the short side. I'm sure it would take a minute, but I think I'd wait a little longer for a third season if it had a full suite of, say, 12 episodes that finally rounded out the story.
Whatever Mazin and company are planning for season 3, we likely won't see it for a while. Star Isabela Merced recently said that she expects filming to get underway "next year," meaning 2026. There's one more episode of The Last of Us season 2 left, coming next Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max. After that, we could be in for a long wait.
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