‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 trailer: Pedro Pascal faces new video game characters, scarier zombies
The Last of Us Season 2 is almost here, and on Saturday, HBO debuted the first official trailer for the acclaimed show’s second season.
The release coincides with a special The Last of Us panel at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival featuring co-showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and cast members Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Kaitlyn Dever, Isabela Merced, and Young Mazino.
More from GoldDerby
Pascal and Ramsey were Emmy nominees for Season 1 of The Last of Us, which won eight Emmy Awards out of 24 nominations (and swept the drama guest acting categories for guest stars Nick Offerman and Storm Reid).
Season 2 premieres on April 13. The action picks up five years after the events of the Season 1 finale. In that episode, Joel (Pascal) saves Ellie (Ramsey) by brutally murdering several resistance fighters and doctors who sought to use Ellie’s immunity to the catastrophic cordyceps outbreak.
“After five years of peace following the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie’s collective past catches up to them, drawing them into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind,” reads the official HBO synopsis. As fans of the blockbuster game on which The Last of Us is based are well aware, more tragic events unfortunately await the show’s lead characters.
“There are things where we don’t have the element of surprise, perhaps, the way the games did,” Mazin told Variety in an interview published this week about the well-known twists ahead. “A lot of people who played the [first] game understood that Joel’s daughter was going to die very quickly in the first episode. Those people weren’t surprised. They felt it because it’s the journey.”
The Last of Us will introduce several new characters in Season 2, including Abby, played by Dever, a key figure in Joel and Ellie's lives.
“Kaitlyn Dever wanted to work with us; we wanted to work with her. It’s not worth passing it up to continue a search that might never bear fruit to find someone that matches the physicality,” Druckmann said to Variety when asked about the physical differences between Abby in the game, who is more imposing and muscular, versus Dever in the show.
In addition to Dever, Mazino, and Merced, Season 2 will feature Jeffrey Wright, reprising his voice role of Isaac in The Last of Us Part II. Guest stars set to appear in Season 2 include Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos), Alanna Ubach (Euphoria), Ben Ahlers (The Gilded Age), Hettienne Park (Hannibal), Robert John Burke (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and Noah Lamanna (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds).
The Last of Us Part II video game is epic in length, and the show’s storyline is likely to extend its events beyond Season 2.
“It feels like we’ve got one or two more seasons,” Mazin told Variety about the HBO series's future. “It’s getting harder to make, because every episode gets big. You don’t want to wait four years for a 17-episode finish, or whatever it is.”
He added, “I’ve been feeling scared lately about like, ‘Oh, yeah, I have to start thinking about Season 3.’ I remember having this feeling when we were finishing Season 1, where I was like, ‘How the f--k are we going to top this?’ Now, of course, I’m like, ‘How the f--k are we going to top this?’”
The Last of Us returns on April 13. Watch the trailer above.
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Solve the daily Crossword
