Mark Your Calendar: 'The Last of Us' Season Two Has Locked in Its Mid-April Return Date
The wait for the Pedro Pascal- and Bella Ramsey-starring game-to-TV hit's seven-episode second season is almost over.
January 2025 brought the return of Severance. February has been all about The White Lotus and Yellowjackets making a comeback, both for their third seasons. March will see Daredevil: Born Again hit streaming queues, then April has new episodes of The Handmaid's Tale and The Last of Us — and HBO has just confirmed exactly when the latter will hit the small screen.
Mark Monday, April 14 in your diary — and yes, the wait for the Pedro Pascal (The Wild Robot)- and Bella Ramsey (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget)-starring game-to-TV hit's seven-episode second season is almost over. How does humanity endure in the aftermath of the Cordyceps virus, and the global devastation caused by it? What does it mean to persist? Also, who do we become in the process? Audiences will find out again in mid-autumn.
Viewers have known roughly when The Last of Us would return for a while now, but not the exact date. At the end of 2024, the US network confirmed that the series would kick off its second season sometime in autumn Down Under. Then, it locked in the month. Also revealed along the way before now: sneak peeks at the hit TV show that's based on the hugely popular gaming series, including as images, in promos for the network's full upcoming slate and via teaser trailers.
Prepare for a time jump. Prepare for a guitar. Prepare for hordes of infected. Prepare for a haunting feeling, too. Also, prepare for sirens, flares and a stern warning: "there are just some things everyone agrees are just wrong", one of the teasers advises.
In season two, it's been five years since the events of season one. And while there has been peace, it clearly isn't here to stay. Yes, Joel and Ellie are back — and, in their shoes, so are Pedro Pascal (The Wild Robot) and Bella Ramsey. This time, however, part of the conflict comes from each other.
The show's main duo also have company from both familiar faces and a heap of newcomers in its second season. Rutina Wesley (Monster High) and Gabriel Luna (Fubar) return as Maria and Tommy, while Kaitlyn Dever (Apple Cider Vinegar), Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus), Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction), Young Mazino (Beef), Ariela Barer (How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Tati Gabrielle (Kaleidoscope), Spencer Lord (Family Law), Danny Ramirez (Black Mirror) and Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) are the season's additions.
The Last of Us made the leap from video games to TV in 2023, and was swiftly renewed after proving a massive smash instantly. The series gave HBO its most-watched debut season of a show ever — and its first episode was also the network's second-largest debut of all time. Locking in a second season was also hardly surprising because the 2013 game inspired a 2014 expansion pack and 2020 sequel.
For first-timers to the franchise on consoles and as a TV series, The Last of Us kicked off 20 years after modern civilisation as we know it has been toppled by a parasitic fungal infection that turns the afflicted into shuffling hordes. Pascal plays Joel, who gets saddled with smuggling 14-year-old Ellie (his Game of Thrones co-star Ramsey) out of a strict quarantine zone to help possibly save humanity's last remnants. There wouldn't be a game, let alone a television version, if that was an easy task, of course — and if the pair didn't need to weather quite the brutal journey.
As a television series, The Last of Us hails from co-creator, executive producer, writer and director Craig Mazin, who already brought a hellscape to HBO (and to everyone's must-watch list) thanks to the haunting and horrifying Chernobyl. He teams up here with Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog, who also penned and directed The Last of Us games.
One question remaining for Australian audiences is where The Last of Us season two will be available. Season one arrived via Binge, but HBO is set to launch its Max streaming platform locally in the first half of 2025 — and doing so with one of its huge recent successes would be a logical move.
Check out the latest teaser trailer for The Last of Us season two below:
The Last of Us season two will arrive on Monday, April 14, 2025 Down Under. Season one is available to stream via Binge in Australia and on Neon in New Zealand. Read our review of the first season.
Images: Liane Hentscher/HBO.
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