The Last of Us Season 2 Will Expand on “Unseen Stories” From Game

HBO’s The Last of Us will return for Season 2 in 2025 with the critically acclaimed series taking on story material from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II video game, but it may not be the only stories that end up being explored. Series creator Craig Mazin says that while the HBO series won’t go beyond the source material, it will explore “unseen stories” from within the context of the games.

“As a fan, I’m thrilled that there might be a third Last of Us game,” Mazin told Deadline. “As the co-creator of this television show, there’s no world where I would want our show to go beyond the source material that people have in the world. Our show as people know it on HBO is going to cover the material from the second game and then quite a bit of material that is relevant to that story but, as I said, wanders down interesting new paths, unseen stories that were told within the context of that games’ material.”

Mazin didn’t elaborate on what those “unseen stories” entailed, but Neil Druckmann, who is not only the head of Naughty Dog but also the co-creator of the television series, echoed Mazin’s sentiments, saying that there is a “grander plan” that ties all of the seasons of The Last of Us together.

“Our focus is the two games,” Druckmann said. “As Craig mentioned, there’s quite a bit of material there that we’re taking our time with, and we’re looking at each piece individually to make sure it’s got its own arc, its own journey that the characters go on, but there is a grander plan that ties all the seasons together.”

The Last of Us Could Run For Up to Four Seasons

As for the seasons of The Last of Us that the “grander plan” ties together, Mazin also revealed that the series could last for up to four seasons as the creative team is taking its time in exploring The Last of Us Part II — though future seasons will also be dependent upon viewers tuning in.

“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons because we’re taking our time and going down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1, too,” Mazin explained. “We feel like it’s almost assuredly going to be the case that — as long as people keep watching and we can keep making more television — Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require Season 4.”

Additionally, Season 2 will have a shorter episode count than fans might expect, but that is because the writers followed “natural breakpoints” in the game when crafting the show’s narrative. As a result, Season 2 will have just seven episodes.

“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin said. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

The Last of Us Season 2 is expected in 2025.