Chief Lifestyle and Entertainment Reporter Jenni Mortimer gives an update on all things entertainment.
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This article contains spoilers for Season 2 of The Last of Us
There were 763 days between the first two seasons of hit TV show The Last of Us, and we’ve just been given an indication whether that pattern will continue.
HBO renewed the series for a third season onApril 9 this year before the premiere of the second season, but didn’t say when that third season would air.
In a recent interview with Variety, Casey Bloys, the HBO chief executive, confirmed the American television service’s timeline for the show’s next season. He told the publication fans have a bit of a wait ahead, saying “the series is definitely planned for 2027”.
If that schedule eventuates, there will be a similar gap between each instalment of the video game adaptation. Season one wrapped on March 12, 2023 and season two premiered on April 13, 2025. In New Zealand, The Last of Us streams on Neon.
Based on the acclaimed video game franchise, the series takes place decades after a mass fungal infection that turns people into zombie-like creatures causes the collapse of society.
The first season followed middle-aged survivor Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) who is tasked with smuggling a young girl out of a quarantine zone and across the United States. The girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), is immune to the cordyceps infection and may be vital to developing a vaccine.
The second season sees the pair living in Wyoming, with Joel’s brother Tommy and Ellie’s friends Dina and Jesse. After Joel’s death, the group travel to Seattle to track down his killer, Abby (Kaitlyn Dever).
While Joel and Ellie were the narrative focus of the first two seasons, there is expected to be a different protagonist for the third season.
In line with the story of the video game, season three is expected to centre on Abby’s perspective, following her experience during Ellie’s search for her in season three.
It’s anticipated to be a longer season as well, with Bloys saying showrunner Craig Mazin was “still working it out whether it will be two more seasons or one more long season.”
While Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey lead the first two seasons as Joel and Ellie it is expected Kaitlyn Dever's character Abby will anchor the show in Season three. Photo / HBO
Other longtime crew members will depart for the third season. In early July, it was announced that Neil Druckmann, the co-creator of the video game, would step away from creative involvement in the series. He had worked closely with Mazin to ensure the HBO series retained the spirit of the video games and is credited as a writer, co-writer and director.
Is The Last of Us popular?
The Last of Us is the first live-action video game adaptation to receive major awards consideration and HBO’s most-watched debut season ever. When the second season concluded, the series overall had received over 90 million total global viewers.
The Last of Us has an average approval rating of 94% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and a weighted average score of 83/100 on Metacritic, indicating “universal acclaim”.
