Properly, we endured and survived, baby girl.
The Last of Us ended its first season nearly two years in the past in March 2023, leaving us nothing lower than emotional husks, nothing greater than hungry for extra deep character-based trauma in Season 2. However after that chilly laborious finale, I am certain you have bought as many questions as we have.
Except you have performed the sport’s sequel, that’s.
For many who have not skilled Naughty Canine’s lauded sequel The Last of Us Part II, the long run is unsure for Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel (Pedro Pascal). The collection, like the sport, ended with Joel’s polarising decision to avoid wasting Ellie, sacrificing a possible treatment for the Cordyceps an infection and executing your complete Fireflies’ medical crew, together with their chief, Marlene (Merle Dandridge). And now? Ellie and Joel have made it again to Jackson, the place the long run is unsure.
For those who’re dying to know what’s in retailer for Season 2, we’re about to get spoilery with first-hand sport data, trailer hints, and first looks to contemplate a few of the main plot factors and characters you may anticipate director Craig Mazin and creator Neil Druckmann to get caught into. We can’t destroy the ending, however we are going to set you up with some monumental moments to uh…sit up for?
If you have not performed the The Final of Us Half II, nevertheless, you may need to flip again and consider our burning questions article instead, which is freed from sport (although not present) spoilers.
For everybody else, let’s delve into the largest storyline moments we are able to anticipate to see in Season 2 — together with the one which HBO had higher anticipate a riot over.
The Final of Us Season 2 means terrifying new Contaminated
Do not breathe.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
Whereas The Final of Us Half II did not utterly reinvent the wheel in the case of new Contaminated, there’s just a few additions we will not wait to see. The latest HBO trailer signifies airborne Cordyceps spores can be added as a hurdle for our protagonists, one thing Season 1 eliminated for on-screen practicality/Pedro Pascal visibility.
One of the crucial terrifying new sorts of Contaminated would be the Stalkers, who’re briefly proven within the trailer scurrying about within the darkness. These stealthy trackers peep out from their hiding locations and use echolocation like Clickers. However they’ve the flexibility to see who they’re charging at — and boy, do they cost. Actually, I hate them a lot.
We’re additionally eager to see if there’s the opportunity of a Rat King this season, the sport’s horrific amalgamation of Contaminated in a single hulking mass — suppose The Witcher.
We’re going again to Jackson
4 years later…
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
It is time to head again to Jackson, Wyoming, people. The fortified settlement the place Joel and Ellie lastly discover his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and spouse Maria (Rutina Wesley) is first seen in The Last of Us Season 1, episode 6. And it is the place Season 2 will seemingly start.
Jackson is a key location within the second sport. We do not truly go to the city within the first sport in any respect; we simply see it within the distance. However Jackson is the place Season 1 of the present ends, as Joel and Ellie have a confrontation on a ridge above the city after everything that went down in Salt Lake City. And Joel lies.
It is seemingly Season 2 will choose up the place The Final of Us Half II does, 4 years later. Because the trailer reveals, Tommy and Maria now have a younger son, who would not exist within the sport. Joel and Ellie live in their very own locations in Jackson, with a significant pressure on their relationship. By now, Ellie is nineteen and doing Contaminated patrols along with her horse Shimmer, who made a candy cameo in Season 1, episode 6 as a foal. And he or she’s about to fall head over heels.
Mashable High Tales
The Final of Us Season 2 will introduce Ellie’s subsequent massive love
Dina + Ellie 4eva 💘
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
Ellie’s tragically short romance with her best friend Riley (Storm Reid) was her past love, however actually not her final. And in Season 1, an Easter egg had avid gamers abuzz, with the fleeting look of a personality integral to Ellie’s life in The Final of Us Half II.
In episode 6, when Joel and Ellie are within the Jackson meals corridor, there is a second when Ellie’s manners fail her and she or he throws a barb at a staring lady. Followers of the sport surmised that this was Dina, Ellie’s future love curiosity — and in HBO’s podcast for the show, neither Mazin or Druckmann confirmed nor denied it.
Performed by Madame Web‘s Isabela Merced in Season 2, Dina is a fancy, kickass character who will play a vastly necessary function. In The Final of Us Half II, the sport begins with one of many franchise’s greatest scenes: a Jackson barn dance the place Dina and Ellie share their first kiss. Their relationship grows with each patrol, each tragedy, each secret they share collectively — together with Dina’s main reveal. Within the sport, Dina’s deep love for Ellie means she joins her quest for revenge: “You go, I am going. Finish of story.”
Jesse has a major half to play.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
One other Season 2 beginner can be Ellie’s greatest buddy Jesse, Dina’s ex-boyfriend from Jackson, who’s performed by Beef‘s Younger Mazino. Jesse tracks Ellie and Dina on their travels in an effort to assist them on their quest to seek out the folks chargeable for probably the most surprising second of the collection.
Yep, it is gonna damage.
The Final of Us Season 2 will do it: Joel’s demise
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
For followers of the sport, we all know what’s coming in Season 2. And we additionally know this can break followers of the present, because it did us whereas enjoying The Final of Us Half II.
I am speaking about Joel’s demise. It is one of the surprising, traumatising occasions I’ve ever encountered in a online game — the brutal homicide of a protagonist you have spent actually lots of of hours enjoying, understanding, and changing into hooked up to. You’ve got survived a lot with Joel, as has Ellie, and Naughty Canine made us watch as her beloved father determine is killed in entrance of her — the game mechanics actually pin Ellie (that is you) to the bottom on this scene.
It will likely be worse than this second in Season 1.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
Sure, Joel’s demise allowed Naughty Canine to distinguish the video games and introduce new character dynamics, particularly transferring Ellie into younger maturity. However I’ve a sense this episode can be one of the talked about, most hands-in-the-air, Red Wedding-level, how-could-they-do-this-to-us episode of Season 2. Contemplating the skyrocketing fame and internet worship of Pedro Pascal, this devastating second within the narrative will be throughout your feed. Put together for a number of stable weeks of grieving on-line.
Joel’s brutal demise by the hands of recent character Abby Anderson (extra on her beneath) will seemingly be in an early episode of Season 2, rattling viewers to the core. However do not despair completely, Pascal followers. The Final of Us Half II options many flashback scenes with the pair, together with an all-important, dinosaur-related reminiscence, scenes in involving Joel’s guitar, and a significant reveal about why precisely there’s stress between Joel and Ellie initially of the sequel. Season 2 will not be utterly Pascal-free, even after his character’s demise.
Bella Ramsey may have room to shine in Season 2
It is solely going to get tougher, Ellie.
Credit score: HBO
Season 2 is all about Ellie. Our protagonist’s grief and rage in The Final of Us Half II will give Ramsey the problem they should take an already unimaginable efficiency even additional. Pascal and Ramsey have constructed the identical stage of chemistry and bond voice actors Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson’s Joel and Ellie did within the video games, and it’ll break hearts to see Bellie and Pedge destroyed like this. However Ramsey may also have loads of motion scenes forward of them too, as Ellie’s combat scenes actually stage up this season.
The Final of Us Season 2 will concentrate on a shellshocked Ellie wanting solely vengeance, monitoring Joel’s killers to their base in Seattle. Tommy goes after them himself, considering Ellie will simply sit tight in Jackson, however in fact that does not occur. So, the occasions of The Final of Us Season 2 will mirror these of the primary season — we’re all the time on the lookout for Tommy in TLOU it appears. However with the addition of Tommy and Maria’s son as seen within the trailer, Tommy’s determination takes on a really totally different gentle.
Oh no. They’ve a son…
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
So, Season 2 is one other highway journey, and can concentrate on Ellie’s journey from from Wyoming to Washington. As Ellie will get increasingly more brutal in her looking techniques, fuelled by grief and rage, Ramsey may have one hell of a journey on their palms. That scene from episode 8 wherein Joel will get actual chilly and torture-y with the map trick? It rubbed off, folks.
Season 2 can be all about Abby
There’s all the time one other perspective.
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
The Final of Us Season 2 will introduce the sport character of Abby Anderson, Joel’s aforementioned killer. Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart, Apple Cider Vinegar, Unbelievable) takes on the polarising function, who will gasoline one of the upsetting moments within the story — however bear in mind, she is a character. And he or she’s a personality you truly play as for half the sport in The Final of Us Half II, and all of the uncomfortable attachment that goes with it.
The phrase “villain” is subjective as all the time for people on this franchise, relying in your perspective. (Besides David. David is a villain.) Abby’s journey in Season 2 will trigger viewers to rethink what makes somebody a monster on this post-apocalyptic hell. As devastating as her actions are, Abby’s character expands the world of The Final of Us past Ellie’s expertise. There will be loads of world-building to sit up for with the place Abby calls house: the WLF.
Season 2 introduces two new factions: WLF and the Seraphites
WTF is the WLF?
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
Finally, saving Abby’s life from Contaminated past the security of the Jackson settlement can be Joel’s undoing, as she’s a part of a Seattle militia group often known as the Washington Liberation Entrance (WLF), aka the Wolves. Led by Isaac Dixon (sensible casting with American Fiction’s Jeffrey Wright), the Wolves are comprised of former Fireflies and recruits, and their base in Seattle is bound to be spectacular set design. There’s a complete forged of recent characters right here with their very own connections and backstories, with actors Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Ariela Barer, and Spencer Lord becoming a member of Dever.
In Season 2, we’ll additionally meet the faction behind unusual symbols and preachy graffiti, the Seraphites, additionally known as the Scars — you may know them by their self-inflicted facial scarring. They seem to be a cult-like group and direct rivals to the Wolves for management of Seattle. Within the trailer, you may spy them with their bows, arrows, and tendency to hold folks within the forest. And inside this faction, we’ll meet two beloved characters, siblings Lev and Yara, who may have a significant influence on Abby’s life.
It isn’t clear whether or not the Rattlers, one other horrific faction in The Final of Us Half II, will function this season. Hope not? Hope so? I am unable to inform what I need.
Will we hear Pedro Pascal sing Pearl Jam in episode 1?
*tunes guitar*
Credit score: Liane Hentscher / HBO
On the very starting of The Final of Us Half II, Joel items Ellie a guitar and the promise of classes, however not earlier than he performs a bit of one thing on it. He picks Pearl Jam’s “Future Days,” a somber ballad that begins with the becoming lyric “If I ever had been to lose you / I might certainly lose myself.” This begs the query: Will we hear Pedro Pascal himself sing a bit of Pearl Jam in Season 2, episode 1?
The Last of Us Season 1 is now streaming on Max. Season 2 premieres on HBO and Max in 2025.
