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The Last of Us Season 3 is the only thing on our 2026 bucket list!
The Last of Us Season 2 will be remembered forever because it depicted the death of Joel, played by Pedro Pascal. This was a huge moment that shocked and upset many fans of the original video game by Naughty Dog, which told the same story. Joel and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, were such a strong team that it’s hard to imagine anyone else like them. But after Joel’s painful and violent death, Ellie isn’t completely alone. In Season 2, she has Dina, played by Isabela Merced, by her side as they travel to Seattle. Their goal is to find Abby, the woman who killed Joel.
But Abby’s side of the story is important too. Season 2 actually starts by showing her life. Abby is the daughter of a doctor who worked for a group called the Fireflies. These Fireflies were trying to find a cure for a deadly infection called the Cordyceps pandemic. But in the Season 1 finale, Joel killed Abby’s father and the other people at the hospital because he found out the cure would have meant killing Ellie. Abby then decided to take revenge by killing Joel. Now, Ellie is following a similar path, seeking revenge for Joel’s death.
HBO has already decided to make a third season of The Last of Us, even before Season 2 came out in April 2025. Season 2 primarily tells the story from the video game The Last of Us Part II, and it appears that Season 3 will continue to follow the story from the games as well.
The Last of Us Season 3 latest news: What did the showrunners discuss?
On May 23, HBO hosted a special press event to talk about the Season 2 finale of The Last of Us. The showrunners, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, who are the main people responsible for creating the show, sat down to share their thoughts. They talked about the big choices they made while making Season 2 and gave some sneak peeks about what fans can expect in the future.
One important thing they discussed was why they decided to tell part of the story from Abby’s point of view. Abby is the woman who caused a lot of pain by killing Joel, but the creators wanted viewers to understand her side too. This gave the story more depth and made it clear that things aren’t just black and white.
They also talked about the ongoing conflict between two groups in the show, the Washington Liberation Front, or WLF, and the Seraphites. These groups are fighting for control, and their war is a big part of the story’s tension and drama.
Lastly, they opened up about a very emotional moment in Season 2: the death of Jesse, a character played by Young Mazino. His death was brutal and heartbreaking, and the showrunners explained why they chose to include this difficult moment.
The Last of Us Season 3 release date
The Last of Us Season 1 premiered in January 2023, followed by Season 2, which debuted on April 13, 2025. Following this timeline, fans can expect roughly a two-year gap before Season 3 arrives. However, the production of the first season was delayed due to the 2023 writers’ strike, which disrupted many TV and film projects as writers fought for fair wages and better working conditions. Because of these delays, there’s hope that The Last of Us will return sooner than 2027, shortening the wait for eager viewers.
The Last of Us Season 3 plot speculations
Based on the final scene of The Last of Us Season 2, which shows Abby arriving at a sports stadium on what’s known as “Seattle Day One”, it’s likely that Season 3 will follow Abby’s perspective over the same three-day period that Ellie and Dina spent in the city. This structure mirrors the video game The Last of Us Part II, where players first live through the events as Ellie, only to then revisit the same timeline through Abby’s eyes, offering a deeper, more layered understanding of the story.
During the virtual finale press conference, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann were asked whether Season 3 will adopt this same approach. While they didn’t give a concrete answer, Mazin hinted at what’s to come: “All I can say is we haven’t seen the last of Kaitlyn Dever [Abby], and we haven’t seen the last of Bella Ramsey [Ellie], and we haven’t seen the last of Isabela Merced [Dina], and we haven’t seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story.” Druckmann added, “Whether you will see them on screen or not, their presence will be there throughout.”
Though the amount of screen time Ellie will get in Season 3 remains unclear, one confirmed focus is the growing conflict between the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and the Seraphites, two rival factions that play a major role in the series’ world. According to Mazin, the team was intentional about how much of these groups were revealed in Season 2. “We wanted them mostly to be experienced through the lens of people that didn’t understand who they were,” he explained, referring to Ellie and Dina’s point of view. “And we wanted to give the audience an introduction in some way to the simplicity of what’s going on.”
He elaborated on how the Seraphites, often referred to as “Scars”, were portrayed in Season 2. “This is a group of clearly, when we meet them, religious people who aren’t fanatics, but they all have these strange scars on their faces, they all dress the same, and they are afraid of either demons or wolves,” Mazin said. At first, when Ellie and Dina stumble upon the aftermath of a massacre, the Seraphites appear to be victims, almost innocent. But that image quickly shifts.
“The next time [Ellie and Dina] encounter them, it’s not the case that they’re all innocents,” Mazin continued. “Some people who are part of this group hang and disembowel WLF soldiers. And that’s when we all realise, we don’t know who the good guy is. Possibly, there is no good guy.” He added that the WLF emerged from ordinary people and defected soldiers, giving them a grounded origin. But as for the Seraphites? “We don’t understand who they are and what they want, but we’re going to.”
If Season 3 indeed follows Abby’s journey closely, as the ending of Season 2 suggests, then audiences are in for a much deeper look into the Seraphites, their beliefs, and what drives them, likely reframing the entire WLF–Seraphite conflict once again through a new lens.
The Last of Us Season 3 cast
Here’s a look at the key cast members we expect to return for The Last of Us Season 3, characters who are still very much alive within the story as of the end of Season 2. However, fans shouldn’t be surprised if some familiar faces who met their end also reappear. As showrunner Craig Mazin teased, “we haven’t seen the last of a lot of people who are currently dead in the story,” hinting that flashbacks, memories, or other narrative twists may bring them back into focus.
Expected returning cast for Season 3:
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Bella Ramsey as Ellie
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Isabela Merced as Dina
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Kaitlyn Dever as Abby
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Gabriel Luna as Tommy
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Rutina Wesley as Maria
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Jeffrey Wright as Isaac
With the story likely to dive deeper into Abby’s perspective and the WLF–Seraphite conflict, many of these characters will play a central role in shaping the emotional and moral complexities of the upcoming season. And if the creative team continues to explore multiple timelines or backstories, fans can expect even more familiar faces to reappear in unexpected ways.
How to watch The Last of Us
Both Season 1 and Season 2 of The Last of Us are currently available to stream on Max, making it easy for viewers to catch up or rewatch the series ahead of Season 3.