Just like the video game it’s based on, The Last of Us season 2 was far more divisive than its predecessor. Despite the controversy, we do know that the show has been greenlit for a third season.
Season 2 only adapted part of the second game, which is far more sprawling than the first. Season 3 will continue to draw from storylines in The Last of Us Part II.
Here’s everything we know about The Last of Us season 3, including plot and character details.
What happened in The Last of Us season 2 finale?
The Last of Us season 2 ends with Ellie returning to the theater after abandoning Jessie to track Abby to the Seattle Aquarium. Ellie finds herself face-to-face with Owen and Mel and inadvertently kills them both. Tommy and Jessie find Ellie and return to the theater. They have decided to return to Jackson, even though Abby is still out there.
Suddenly, Ellie and Jessie hear gunshots and find Abby in the theater with a gun to Tommy’s head. She shoots Jessie dead, and the last thing we hear is a gun firing.
The show cuts to three days in the past and follows Abby as she wakes up in the Seahawks Stadium. This is a pivotal moment in the game, indicating that the third season will follow the same three days in Seattle from Abby’s point of view. Now, we must wait to see how the action in the theater gets resolved.
What is the plot of The Last of Us season 3?
No official plot synopsis for season 3 has been released. It will likely explore part of the story that we haven’t seen yet. Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby, the person responsible for Joel’s death, is someone we’ve met occasionally in the story thus far.
Players of the game will know, though, that gameplay is pretty evenly divided between Ellie and Abby, which means that there’s a whole slice of Abby’s story that we have not seen yet.
“There is another side to this story that we have yet to really delve into. There’s no question that Abby is the hero of her story,” showrunner Craig Mazin said in a finale press conference.
Isabella Merced, who plays Dina in the show, has also said that Jesse’s death will place significant strain on the relationship between Ellie and Dina, which will become even more important in the third season.
“It’s going to be weird acting like I don’t like Bella. It’s going to be hard because I have such a sweet spot for [Ellie and Dina] now,” she told Variety in May 2025. “I’ve tried to ask Craig [Mazin], but I don’t think he even really knows yet fully how things are going to be.”
Will season 3 be the last season?
Usually, when Mazin discusses whether The Last of Us will conclude with its third season, he has said that he will need more than one more season to tell the rest of the story. Lately, Mazin has changed his tune on that particular question.
He told THR that the season would be “more on par” with the length of season 1, which was nine episodes, instead of season 2, which had seven. Whether that means it’s going to tell the whole story, we’ll just have to see.
When is the release date for The Last of Us season 3?
Given that the season hasn’t started filming yet, it will likely be at least a year before we get the show’s third season. The gap between seasons 1 and 2 was two years, and it seems like this gap might be similar.
Who is in the cast for The Last of Us season 3?
The full cast list has not yet been confirmed, but given that the season will focus primarily on Abby, we can expect Kaitlyn Dever and the rest of the WLF crew, as well as the characters who have been central to the story thus far. Here’s a full rundown of who we can expect:
- Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
- Bella Ramsey as Ellie
- Isabela Merced as Dina
- Gabriel Luna as Tommy
- Danny Ramirez as Manny
- Jeffrey Wright as Isaac
- Spencer Lord as Owen
- Tati Gabrielle as Nora
- Ariela Barer as Mel
Some characters have yet to be introduced in the game, and they will need to be cast for the new season.
How to watch The Last of Us season 3
The Last of Us season 3 does not have a release date. However, it will air on HBO and stream on HBO Max. Every episode from seasons 1 and 2 is now streaming.
Neil Druckmann will not be part of the third season
For the first time in the third season, Craig Maizin will be showrunning The Last of Us alone. His co-executive producer, Neil Druckmann, the man behind the video games, announced after the second season that he would be stepping away from the series ahead of the third season.
“I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creative involvement in The Last of Us on HBO. With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, along with my responsibilities as Studio Head and Head of Creative,” he said in a statement.
Druckmann has never stated that his decision was in any way motivated by the controversies around the show’s second season.
