The Last of Us Season 2 "Ready to Go" Once Strikes End

The Last of Us season 2 made significant progress before the strikes.

The Last of Us season 2 should come relatively quickly once the strikes have ended. The Last of Us is without a doubt one of the biggest TV shows of 2023. Not only did it score huge viewership numbers for HBO, but it was praised up and down by critics and will likely sweep during awards season. The show was quickly greenlit for a second season before the first season was even half way over, showing HBO's immense faith in the series. Given the first season adapted the entire first game, it naturally means the second season will at the very least start to adapt the second game. With the second game being much longer and more dense, it's expected to be covered across multiple seasons, possibly resulting in four seasons total.

With that said, the WGA strike began in early May and forced the writers to stop developing scripts for films and shows they were working on. All progress was halted on The Last of Us season 2, a show that's not expected to return until 2025. Fans were worried the strike may push the show back even further as it was assumed once the strike ended, they'd have to continue developing the series. However, that's apparently not really the case. The Last of Us creator told Entertanment Weekly that the entire second season is "ready to go" as soon as the strike ends. Druckmann specifically stated the season is outlined, so the whole season will likely have to be cemented in script format before they can actually shoot.

The Last of Us season 2 was also in the process of casting characters such as Abby, the second game's antagonist/deuteragonist. Whether or not they actually found who they're going to cast or are still narrowing it down remains to be seen. Either way, it sounds like things are moving along quite quickly and if the strikes end soon, perhaps there's a chance season 2 will still hit our TVs by 2025.

What's The Last of Us Season 2 About?

As of right now, the creators of the HBO series haven't talked specific plot points for the second season. However, going off of what happens in the second game, it'll be a wild ride. The game skips forward several years and shows Ellie and Joel now have a fractured relationship, the cause of which is initially unclear. Things are then made all the worse when a mysterious woman named Abby wanders into their lives with a band of well-trained friends and starts raising hell. It's likely the next several seasons of the show will adapt this story in great detail, but it has been suggested they may toy with where and how some of the big beats of the game happen.

Is The Last of Us 3 in Development?

Rumors and leaks seem to suggest The Last of Us Part 3 is indeed on the way, but nothing has been confirmed. Naughty Dog has noted that it is holding off announcing games too early now and will show what comes next when the time is right. We do know that an outline for the third game was cooked up shortly after the release of the second game, so even if it's not in development right this second (which seems unlikely), Naughty Dog has a plan in place for it at some point.