After only two episodes (the first of which you can watch for free) HBO has renewed the post-apocalyptic survival show The last of us for a second season. News broke this morning that the adaptation of Joel and Ellie’s story is moving forward after completing its nine-part run in March. While there aren’t many details about what a second season will look like, that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate.
The most obvious assumption would be that a second season could follow the events of The Last of Us Part II as series director Neil Druckmann alluded to on Twitter alongside the announcement. The sequel focuses on an older version of Ellie after the murder of someone close to her sends her on a revenge spree across Seattle. However, with so many years between the story of the original game and its sequel, it would be reasonable to wait maybe a season or two before jumping straight into this story and waiting for Bell Ramsey, the actor who plays Ellie, to be a little older.
Conversely, a season focused on the years before the events Part II would be doable and would also let Ramsey play Ellie when she gets older. It would be a format change compared to the game, since Part II presents these stories through flashbacks interspersed between today’s segments. But changing the structure of the story could result in the show spending more time on characters and relationships Part II had to be glossed over because of its time jump. So if HBO and Sony choose not to jump straight into the sequel’s story, there are plenty of gaps to be filled between the two games.
HBO version of The last of us could also take a note of the games and play with perspective. The Last of Us Part II has two protagonists in Ellie and Abby and switches between the two at several points in the game to give the player a different understanding of the events. fans are convinced they figured out who could play Abby on the showand I found myself wondering about a second season of The last of us it was all about Abby and her perspective on the time we spend with Joel and Ellie in season one. It would feel thematically appropriate and be able to play with certain tensions and frictions that players feel with the games when those watching the show have to sit with a character they haven’t developed the bond with, but I also wonder how HBO and Sony coyly played with the twists and turns of Abby’s story while simultaneously marketing prestige television to millions of people. I think it would be one of the more interesting avenues the show could go, but I think it would be challenging for the market, and Naughty Dog’s use of misleading trailers and keeping Abby’s involvement a secret was one of the biggest sources of backlash at the time Part II‘s launch.
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Whatever the show ends up doing, it’s unclear if the last of us Games will continue past Part IIsince Naughty Dog doesn’t seem interested in simply continuing the series for the sake of continuity, and need a worthwhile story to make another game set in his post-apocalyptic universe.
