As reported by Deadline, on Sunday, episode 1 of The Last of Us’ second season had over 5.3 million viewers in the US across all platforms that the show streamed on. That’s up from the Season 1 premiere in 2023 – which drew 4.7 million US viewers on day one – by 10 percent. The latter went on to amass over 32 million total viewers, so it should be interesting to see how Season 2’s debut fares.

Interestingly, Deadline also reports that viewership for Season 1 also increased by 150 percent in the week leading up to Season 2’s premiere.

The Last of Us Season 2 has six more episodes left, with the next coming on April 20. Check out a new trailer for the upcoming episodes through here. HBO has also officially greenlit a third season.

From tense encounters with different types of Infected and personal drama between Ellie, Joel, and others to explosive conflict between the WLF and the Seraphites in Seattle and more, plenty is coming up that fans of the source material will be familiar with. As the season’s first episode indicated, however, the show will seemingly continue to expand on The Last of Us Part 2’scontent with its own additions. Check out the trailer below. 

Season 2 of The Last of Us has six more episodes left in its ongoing second season, with the next set to premiere on April 20. A third season has also already been officially greenlit.

HBO announced the news via the official Max Twitter account, accompanying it with a brief teaser that shows… nothing. Given that Season 2 itself hasn’t even premiered its first episode yet, that much, at least, is understandable.

Season 2 of The Last of Us premieres this Sunday, on April 13. In addition to bringing back Pedro Pascal as Joel, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, and Gabriel Luna as Tommy, the new season is also introducing several new key characters in the form of Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby, Isabela Merced’s Dina, Young Mazino’s Jesse, and others.

Season 2 will consist of seven episodes, and will cover only part of The Last of Us Part 2– which means we can expect the show to continue to focus on the 2020 game in its third season.

It can’t be for nothing. Season 3 is coming. #TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/q5HxyvK9O6

— Max (@StreamOnMax) April 9, 2025

We’ll leave those unspoiled for those who’re heading into uncharted territory with Season 2, but there’s plenty of note to talk about nonetheless. In addition to showing the likes of Joel (Pedro Pascal), Ellie (Bella Ramsey), Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), Tommy (Gabriel Luna), Isaac (Jeffrey Wright(, and others, it also showcases a significantly larger number of Infected.

New factions and locations that fans of the game will find familiar are also shown, while one shot also seems to suggest that spores, which were absent in Season 1, will be making their introduction in Season 2. Check out the trailer below.

The Last of Us Season 2 will premiere on April 13. The season will consist of seven episodes.

Max announced on Twitter, where the streaming platform also unveiled three new posters showcasing Pedro Pascal’s Joel, Bella Ramsey’s Ellie, and Kaitlyn Dever’s Abby, who will be among the key characters this season. You can view the posters below.

They will be joined by Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley, playing Tommy and Maria, respectively. Newcomers will include Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, and Spencer Lord as Owen, among others. Jeffrey Wright, who played the role of Isaac in The Last of Us Part 2, will reprise his role from the game.

Season 2 will cover only part of The Last of Us Part 2, and consists of seven episodes.

Every path has a price.#TheLastOfUs returns April 13 on Max. pic.twitter.com/KRccalszIq

— Max (@StreamOnMax) February 19, 2025

Every path has a price.#TheLastOfUs returns April 13 on Max. pic.twitter.com/prGsEfBIlo

— Max (@StreamOnMax) February 19, 2025

Every path has a price.#TheLastOfUs returns April 13 on Max. pic.twitter.com/fZFhrQJeLF

— Max (@StreamOnMax) February 19, 2025

The teaser shows glimpses of a number of scenes and locations that those who’ve played The Last of Us Part 2 will find familiar, including the Hospital in Seattle that Ellie finds herself in while hunting for Abby. The latter – played by Kaitlyn Dever – also takes center stage in the trailer.

As previously confirmed, The Last of Us’ second season will consist of seven episodes, making it shorter than the first season. It will cover only part of The Last of Us Part 2. 

In addition to the likes of Pedro Pascal (Joel), Bella Ramsey (Ellie), Gabriel Luna (Tommy), and Rutina Wesley (Marie) reprising their roles, it will also introduce a larger cast, like the aforementioned Dever’s Abby, Young Mazino’s Jesse, Isabela Merced’s Dina, and more. Jeffrey Wright will also play Isaac, a role he played in the game. 

During a recent presentation to journalists regarding upcoming programming (via IGN), HBO and Max Content CEO and Chairman Casey Bloys revealed that The Last of Us’ second season is coming in Spring 2025, which means we should expect it starting late March. A specific premiere date wasn’t announced.

In August, HBO offered a sneak peak at the upcoming season of The Last of Us, before showcasing a full trailer in September to celebrate The Last of Us Day.

The Last of Us Season 2 will only partially cover the events of The Last of Us Part 2, as previously confirmed by showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann. Mazin has also confirmed that the second season will have seven episodes.

A new trailer showcases scenes from the upcoming second season, many of which fans of The Last of Us Part 2 will recognize, from interactions between Joel and Ellie to Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) crawling through a horde of Infected under a chain link fence, to Ellie playing a song for Dina (Isabela Merced).

Several other characters are also glimpsed throughout the trailer, including Tommy and newcomers like Jessie (Young Mazino) and Isaac (played by Jeffrey Wright, same as in the game), while we also get some brief looks at the Seraphites, the W.L.F., and a whole lot of Infected running through the snow, likely in Jackson. You can view the trailer below.

The Last of Us’ second season is set to premiere in 2025, reportedly in the first half of the year. As previously confirmed, Season 2 will have seven episodes in total, and it will not cover The Last of Us Part 2 in its entirety. 

A brief new teaser showcases various shots from the upcoming second season, showing several characters, locations, and sequences that those who’ve played The Last of Us Part 2 will recognize, and some that are looking like new additions (or at least new takes on familiar scenes). 

In addition to Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Ella Ramsey (Ellie) reprising their roles, The Last of Us’ second season will also add a host of new characters in the form of Abby (played by Kaitlyn Dever), Dina (Isabela Merced), Jesse (Young Mazino), and more. Jeffrey Wright, meanwhile, will play Isaac, a role he played in the game as well. 

The Last of Us’ second season will cover only part of the second game, and will consist of seven episodes. It’s set to premiere sometime in 2025.

For instance, Mazin has confirmed that the show’s season season is going to be seven episodes long, as opposed to the first season’s nine episodes.

“The story material that we got from Part 2 of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin said. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the national breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

That said, one of the season’s seven episodes is going to be longer in length. Similar to the first season’s 80-minute premiere, Mazin says the second season is going to have an episode that’s going to be not quite feature-length, but still longer than the usual hour of runtime.

And what about beyond season 2? It’s been confirmed in the past that The Last of Us Part 2 is going to be split across multiple seasons, so we’ve known for a while that the second season won’t be the end of the show. Mazin touched upon what will follow afterwards as well, saying that the third season will be “significantly larger”, and that even after a season 3 has wrapped up, the show will still likely not be done.

“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,” he 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.”

Mazin had another season 4 tease to offer, adding, “One thing is absolutely for sure, I don’t see how we could tell the story that remains after Season 2 is complete in one more season.”

The Last of Us Season 2 is set to premiere sometime in 2025. In addition to Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie respectively, it will also star Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse, and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, among others.