Arguably the biggest TV series pop culture phenomenon of the first half of this year, HBO’s highly successful adaptation of the acclaimed video game “The Last of Us,” was a roaring success all around with critics, viewers and more.
Naturally, fans are keen to see how they adapt the bigger, darker and more divisive “The Last of Us Part II” game for the next season. For a while now, talk had been that filming would kick off towards year’s end, according to the actors.
However, the writer’s strike has reportedly impacted those plans, according to the Head of HBO Drama Francesca Orci. Talking with Deadline, she advises that pre-production on the season has been halted as episodes were still being written right up until the strike began.
Filming has not begun, but if the strike drags on for months (as is looking likely) the planned end of 2023 production start will likely be pushed back sometime into 2024. That means that release would likely be delayed as well.
The first season took a year to shoot its nine episodes with the series premiering six months after it wrapped – eighteen months from the start of filming to premiere. This suggests the earliest we’ll be likely to see the second season is mid-late 2025.
Pedro Pascal’s Joel and Bella Ramsey’s Ellie will be back, but the key casting of Abby remains to be announced. Craig Mazin (“Chernobyl”) and game director Neil Druckmann serve as showrunners.
