The Last Of Us Season 2 Gets An Official Update
On November 2, HBO CEO Casey Bloys announced at a press conference that production of "The Last of Us" Season 2 will kick off in early 2024, according to a report by Variety. While this means that the upcoming season will start filming sooner rather than later, the series is absent from the network's programming slate for the upcoming year, so it's all but confirmed that "The Last of Us" Season 2 won't premiere until at least 2025. Bloys explained that the new season's planned start date was pushed back in response to the dual SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
It's worth noting that, as of HBO's press conference, SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, though the previous day, the union's chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, told ABC that actors and studios could come to a resolution within days or weeks. "It all depends on the companies coming forward and making moves that let us reach that deal," he said. "We're working every day to accomplish that, so I hope it's really soon."
The fact that HBO has locked in production on "The Last of Us" for 2024 suggests that the network expects a resolution at some point prior to whenever filming might begin. This would likely follow a pre-production period from which actors could still be absent.
Plenty of key details about The Last of Us Season 2's production are still under wraps
"The Last of Us" Season 1 effectively adapts the first "Last of Us" video game in its entirety. However, the second game in the series, "The Last of Us Part II," is getting the proper treatment at HBO for Season 2 and beyond, with co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann planning on stretching it into multiple seasons. So whereas Season 1's overarching story beats were familiar ahead of time to anyone who played through its video game source material, Season 2 has more room to blaze its own trail. Even in Season 1, the acclaimed Episode 3 tells a story almost entirely new to the "Last of Us" universe, so it's possible that Season 2's theoretically slower pace will allow for more such diversions.
One of the biggest unknowns regarding Season 2 is who Mazin, Druckmann, and co. have cast to play Abby Anderson, a major character introduced in the second video game. Two names attached to the role are Florence Pugh and Shannon Berry, but their involvement is merely rumored. Based on HBO's latest production update, it may still be some time before some of the biggest questions surrounding "The Last of Us" Season 2 will be answered, but fans can take solace in the fact that its production will, at least, soon be underway.
This piece was written during 2023's SAG-AFTRA strike. To learn more about why actors are currently on strike, click here for an up-to-date explainer from our Looper team.