The Pulse-Pounding Adventure Continues!

By Dakota Mayes

To the surprise of absolutely no one, especially after drawing 22 million viewers in from the premiere alone, HBO’s The Last of Us has been renewed for a second season. The new hit series, which will air its third episode tomorrow night (an episode already being described as a standout hour), is based on the hit award-winning video game from 2013. The game follows a smuggler named Joel as he transports a teenage girl across a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the hopes that her DNA provides the cure for a mutant strain of fungus that has decimated the globe. The TV series follows the same plot, and it so far has remained entirely faithful to its source material.

On the show’s renewal, showrunner Neil Druckmann had this to say: “I’m humbled, honored, and frankly overwhelmed that so many people have tuned in and connected with our retelling of Joel and Ellie’s journey. The collaboration with Craig Mazin, our incredible cast and crew, and HBO exceeded my already high expectations,” Druckmann said. “Now we have the absolute pleasure of being able to do it again with season two!”

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The second season will reportedly follow the same storyline as The Last of Us Part 2, the highly anticipated video game sequel which was released in 2020. This was indicated by co-producer Craig Mazin, who hinted as such, saying that he “does not like filler.” The idea is that they do not want to come up with too much extra story to bridge the two chapters, aiming to avoid the same mistakes that Game of Thrones made in its final seasons.

The Last of Us HBO series sees Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) as Joel and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones) as Elle on their adventures through the remains of a ruined America. The series also features Gabriel Luna (Andor) as Joel’s brother Tommy. Merle Dandridge reprised her role as Marlene from the video game in the series’ first episode. Anna Torv (Fringe) plays Tess in the series, Joel’s smuggler companion in the first half of the series and game. The next episode will feature Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreations) as Bill, another survivor whose role is yet to be defined.

The Last of Us airs new episodes every Sunday at 8 PM CST with the episode also being uploaded on HBO Max for streaming.