The Last of Us Season 2 premieres on HBO Sunday, but fans eagerly awaiting the show’s long-anticipated return have just been hit with some bad news.
Based on the Naughty Dog video game of the same name and starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, two survivors in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a mutated Cordyceps infection, The Last of Us has been a powerhouse for HBO. But it seems the series only has a few more seasons of life.
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Recently opening up about the show’s future beyond Season 2, Craig Mazin, who co-created The Last of Us with Neil Druckmann, told The Hollywood Reporter that there will be a maximum of two more seasons – the recently confirmed Season 3 and a possible Season 4. According to Mazin, the decision not to extend the show further has to do with a desire not to go past its source material, with only two The Last of Us games currently released. A third game, The Last of Us Part III, is confirmed to be in the works, but doesn’t yet have a release date.
“I am not going to go past the game. I’ll just say that flat out. So if people are thinking, ‘Oh, these guys are planning the old cash grab thing—,’” Mazin told the outlet. “I’m basically setting a decade of my rapidly dwindling life on fire to tell this story. The show is so hard to make. It has to have an end. So I’m not going to go past.”
Mazin’s comments mirror those made by HBO’s Francesca Orsi back in February. Discussing the future of the hit show with Deadline, Orzi revealed, “I think it’s looking like four seasons. I wouldn’t want to confirm that, but it’s looking like this season and then two more seasons after this and we’re done.”
While The Last of Us isn’t likely to see more than four seasons total, and Mazin has no plans to continue his involvement in the franchise after the show wraps, he did tease a future for the series via a spinoff, in the same vein of Dunk and Egg, the upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.
“Who knows, there might be a Dunk and Egg The Last of Us show that happens that somebody does,” he said. “But for me, the only question is: Is it going to be one more season or will it require two more? If this can happen all in one more season, great. If we feel like it makes sense to break it into two, then we will do that.”
Along with Pascal and Ramsey, The Last of Us, which debuted in January 2023, stars Gabriel Luna, Rutina Wesley, Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Ariela Barer, Tati Gabrielle, Spencer Lord, Danny Ramirez and Jeffrey Wright. Catherine O’Hara also guest stars.
The HBO show is available to stream on Max, with Season 2 premiering Sunday.
