To the surprise of no one living above ground, HBO won’t be done telling the story of The Last of Us Part II by the end of the TV adaptation’s upcoming second season. Today, HBO announced the Emmy-winning, nightmare-inducing, tear-ripping drama has been renewed for a third, and it needed to be unless HBO wanted to piss off die-hard fans of the video game original.
Returning this Sunday, the show picks up five years after Joel (Pedro Pascal) dooms humanity’s chances of curing the mutated strain of the Cordyceps fungus by saving Ellie (Bella Ramsey) from the deadly surgery doctors are about to perform in order to extract the necessary materials for a cure in Season 1. The second season deals with the mistrust Ellie has formed for Joel after suspecting him of lying to her about what happened after she was put under for the surgery. If you’re familiar with the PlayStation games the series is based on, the second season will be both familiar. It’s the frustration you’ll also feel that necessitates this unsurprising season 3 renewal.
Eight months ago, The Last of Us director Craig Mazin told Deadline that the show’s team got so much more story material from The Last of Us Part II compared to its predecessor that there was likely no way they could properly tell the game’s full story in two seasons. He not only confirmed the series would need a third season before premiering the second season, but also hinted at episodes beyond that horizon.
“We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because we’re taking our time and go down interesting pathways which we did a little bit in Season 1 too,” Mazin said. “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.”
With the new season being two episodes shorter than the first season, and our own Kenneth Shepard being unimpressed with what he found to be the second season’s overly expository storytelling, season 3 might need to come sooner than later.