Everything to Know About ‘The Last of Us' Season 3
The Last of Us, HBO's post-apocalyptic drama based on the PlayStation video game series of the same name, will return for a third season of mushroom monsters and character-driven storytelling. Like Season 2, Season 3 will be based on the game The Last of Us Part II, and tell the story from the perspective of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), the traumatized soldier who (spoiler alert) tortured and killed Joel (Pedro Pascal) in front of his adopted daughter Ellie (Bella Ramsey) early in Season 2. Abby is a playable character in the game, so the shift in perspective is an established part of the story, and an important element in establishing its themes of empathy and forgiveness.
While we wait for news about Season 3, which could take a long while to produce, here's what we know about The Last of Us Season 3 so far, including cast, story, and potential premiere date.
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The Last of Us was officially renewed for Season 3 in April 2025, shortly before the Season 2 premiere. There was a more than two-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2, and while the gap between Seasons 2 and 3 is likely to be shorter — the delay was partially due to the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes — it's still going to be long. It's rare for productions as large and visual effects-intensive as The Last of Us to take less than 18 months between seasons. Meanwhile, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and executive producer Halley Gross are still in the process of writing Season 3, and no start-of-filming date has been announced, let alone a premiere date.
It's unclear if Season 3 will be the final season, but whether it is or not, the producers hope to get it out into the world in a reasonable amount of time. 'It feels like we've got one or two more seasons,' Mazin told Variety ahead of the Season 2 premiere. '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.'
Season 2 picks up about five years after the end of Season 1, when Joel massacred a hospital full of people in order to save Ellie, who is immune from the cordyceps infection that decimated humanity, from being killed so doctors could study her blood in order to find a cure. Ellie and Joel have found a home in the community of Jackson, Wyo., but their relationship has become strained because Joel lied to Ellie about what he did to save her. Ellie would like to forgive him, but doesn't know if she can.
One day, during a simultaneous infected attack on Jackson, Abby, who is the daughter of the doctor Joel killed as he was about to operate on Ellie, and her crew of followers reach Jackson and capture Joel, Ellie, and Ellie's friend Dina (Isabela Merced). Abby kills Joel, and Ellie vows to get revenge (or justice, which is how she thinks of it) as Abby and her people leave.
Ellie and Dina set out on a mission to find Abby, during the course of which they become a couple, Ellie reveals she's immune, and Dina reveals that she's pregnant. They track Abby to Seattle, where the paramilitary organization she's part of, the WLF, is involved in an ongoing conflict with a group of religious fanatics called the Seraphites. Ellie finds a member of Abby's group, Nora (Tati Gabrielle), and tortures her for Abby's whereabouts. Ellie ends up killing two more of Abby's friends, Owen (Spencer Lord) and Mel (Ariela Barer), the latter of whom was pregnant, before Abby finds her and Jesse (Young Mazino), the father of Dina's baby who has come from Jackson to help them. She kills Jesse, and as she's holding Ellie at gunpoint, we hear a shot ring out but don't see what happens. We then flash back to three days earlier, from Abby's point of view.
Season 3 will primarily be told from Abby's point of view as she develops a friendship with Seraphite dissidents Yara and Lev while the WLF, led by ruthless pragmatist Isaac (Jeffrey Wright), prepares to attack the Seraphites' base. Dever, who was a guest star in Season 2, will become the show's lead, while Ramsey will shift to a supporting role for at least some of the season, though how much is still TBD. 'I think that I'm going to be there, but not a whole bunch,' Ramsey told Variety. 'We've had conversations about that. I sort of have a rough idea of what it's going to be, but I can't tell you.'
Mazin said that how much already established characters like Ellie, Dina, Jesse, and Tommy (Gabriel Luna) will appear in Season 3 is still being worked out. 'All I can say is we haven't seen the last of Kaitlyn Dever and we haven't seen the last of Bella Ramsey, and we haven't seen the last of Isabela Merced, and we haven't seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story,' he said during a press conference for the Season 2 finale.
Bella Ramsey and Kaitlyn Dever will of course return as Ellie and Abby, respectively. Isabela Merced will return as Dina and Gabriel Luna will return as Joel's brother Tommy. Jeffrey Wright will have a larger role as Isaac, who only appeared a few times in Season 2. Spencer Lord and Ariela Barer will also likely return, as Owen and Mel play important parts in Abby's story. But, again, the story for Season 3 is still being worked out, and the cast is officially unconfirmed.
Season 3 will also introduce new characters, most importantly the aforementioned Yara and Lev, who have not been cast yet. Yara was played in the game by Victoria Grace, while Lev was played by Ian Alexander.
It's possible that Pedro Pascal could return in flashbacks as Joel, but that's perhaps unlikely, as all of his important scenes from The Last of Us Part II were incorporated into Season 2.
Like Seasons 1 and 2, Season 3 will air on HBO and be available to stream on HBO Max.
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