Release date, cast, story, and more

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2.

You haven’t seen the last of The Last of Us.

After an Emmy-winning debut season, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s HBO adaptation of the wildly popular (and titanically depressing) video game franchise upped the ante with a positively brutal second season. Not only did the episodes introduce a new host of complex antiheroes, but they also dropped the axe (sorry, golf club) on Pedro Pascal’s Joel, the show’s ostensible protagonist.

But as those who’ve watched the season (and played the games) know, Joel’s death isn’t an ending, but rather a catalyst for more story. The bulk of season 2 follows Ellie (Bella Ramsey), the teenager Joel sold his soul to help keep alive in season 1, as she embarks on a mission of revenge against his killer, a steely-eyed soldier named Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).

Mazin and Druckmann previously teased that the second game in the franchise would play out across more than one season, and they weren’t kidding. The season ends with a lot more of the game’s story left to unfold.

So, will there be a season 3 of The Last of Us? When is it coming out? Will Abby be a big part of it? You bet your ass she will. Read on as we share everything we know about The Last of Us season 3.

How did The Last of Us season 2 end?

The Last of Us season 2 ends with a bloodthirsty Ellie coming face-to-face with Abby, the woman who killed her ersatz father figure. Abby pulls a gun on her before the screen turns to black.

Ellie, however, was ready to abandon her revenge mission. After killing Owen (Spencer Lord) and fatally wounding Mel (Ariela Barer), both of whom were present for Joel’s murder, Ellie realizes that Mel was pregnant. This destroys her, partly because she just found out Dina (Isabela Merced) is pregnant herself.

Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and Jesse (Young Mazino) have arrived in Seattle to take Ellie and Dina back home, but before they can, they’re ambushed by Abby. Abby shoots Jesse in the face, killing him, and holds her gun to Tommy’s head.

When she realizes it’s Ellie who’s been killing her friends, she seethes, “I let you live… and you wasted it.”

It’s here we fade to black, only to travel back several days. Manny (Danny Ramirez) is waking Abby from a nap inside the W.L.F. headquarters in a baseball stadium in Seattle. The season ends with Abby overlooking the W.L.F.’s community, which doesn’t look all that different from Ellie’s in Jackson.

Will there be a season 3 of The Last of Us?

Yes, The Last of Us season 3 was made official ahead of season 2’s premiere in April 2025.

In a statement, Mazin said, “We approached season 2 with the goal of creating something we could be proud of, The end results have exceeded even our most ambitious goals, thanks to our continued collaboration with HBO and the impeccable work of our unparalleled cast and crew. We look forward to continuing the story of The Last of Us with season 3!”

Druckmann added, “To see The Last of Us brought to life so beautifully and faithfully has been a career highlight for me, and I am grateful for the fans’ enthusiastic and overwhelming support. Much of that success is thanks to my partner in crime, Craig Mazin, our partnership with HBO, and our team at PlayStation Productions. On behalf of everyone at Naughty Dog, our cast and crew, thank you so much for allowing us this opportunity. We’re thrilled to bring you more of The Last of Us!”

What is The Last of Us season 3 about?

If the thought of spending time with the woman who killed Joel turns your stomach, well, we have some bad news. As teased in the final moments of season 2, the next chapter of The Last of Us will be centered primarily on Abby. We’re informed during the final scene, which finds Abby waking up at the W.L.F.’s Seattle headquarters, that it’s “Day One,” meaning we’ve jumped back to the day of Ellie and Dina’s arrival in Seattle.

“There is another side to this story that we have yet to really delve into,” Mazin said during a press conference following the season 2 finale.

“There’s no question that Abby is the hero of her story,” he continued. “Kaitlyn Dever is the hero of a story, always. If you have a Kaitlyn Dever, you use a Kaitlyn Dever. So I think where we go next, all I can say is it will always be centering somebody, whether it’s Ellie and Dina, or whether it’s Abby and Abby’s relationship with Owen or new relationships. If you played the game, you probably know what I’m talking about. But if you want to boil it down, everything is under the cloud or sunlight of Joel, what Joel did to Abby, and what Joel did for Ellie. That will never change.”

“There’s just an epic nature to it of what’s about to happen, but this other story’s going to be really important coming back to Joel and Ellie and everything that you’ve seen so far,” added Druckmann, speaking to the Abby’s importance to the grander arc of The Last of Us.

This could be a bitter pill to swallow for Joel and Ellie stans. Speaking with Variety, Ramsey said that she will “most likely” have a smaller role in season 3 compared to the first two seasons.

“[HBO] understands that this show is going to be a different show every season, which is a tricky thing to do when you’re a hit show,” Druckmann said following the finale “You keep asking people, ‘I know you love this. We’re taking it away and giving you this now.’ And then hopefully they go, ‘Oh! Well you know what? We actually really like this.’ … We’re giving you this now because that’s how the story works.”

This isn’t to say, of course, that we won’t be seeing Ellie and the rest of the Jackson crew. Also, other storylines will be elaborated upon, such as the ongoing battle for Seattle between the W.L.F. and the cultish Seraphites, who we briefly glimpsed throughout season 2.

“How did that war start? Why?” Mazin said at the press conference. “How did the Seraphites start? Who is [their] prophet? What happened to her? What does Isaac want? What’s happening at the end of Episode 7? What is this explosion? All of it will become clear.”

Who’s in The Last of Us season 3 cast?

Season 2 of The Last of Us was a bloodbath, with Ellie slaughtering several characters before seeing Jesse shot dead in the finale. The good news about season 3 taking us back in time is that many of those characters are likely to return, unaware of the grisly fates awaiting them.

“All I can say is, we haven’t seen the last of Kaitlyn Dever and we haven’t seen the last of Bella Ramsey and we haven’t seen the last of Isabela Merced and we haven’t even seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story,” said Mazin following the season 2 finale.

The back half of season 2 was so laser-focused on Ellie and Dina that season 3 is likely to explore the struggles characters like Jesse and Tommy faced on their way to Seattle, as well as what W.L.F. folks like Owen, Mel, and Nora (Tati Gabrielle) were up to before being confronted by Ellie.

Speaking with EW following the finale, Mazino teased his potential role in season 3. The actor, who accidentally spoiled Joel’s death while on The Tonight Show, said, “For good reason, they’ve been cryptic about it, but I think at one point [Mazin] told me Jesse and Tommy, they’re going to f— s— up, or something along the lines of that. That’s all I know. We’re going to f— s— up, apparently.”

Is there a The Last of Us season 3 release date?

HBO has yet to confirm a release date for The Last of Us season 3. It could very well be a while, though, as Ramsey admitted to not having seen any scripts yet while speaking with Variety.

Where can I watch The Last of Us?

The Last of Us seasons 1 and 2 are currently streaming on HBO Max.

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