If you're a fan of absolutely heartbreaking dramas, HBO's The Last of Us is the next one to watch. Adapted from the video game franchise of the same name by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and game creator Neil Druckman, the dystopian series wrapped up its first season last Sunday, giving viewers the chance to see alert survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) and feisty The series left viewers with an intense emotional cliffhanger over wary survivor Joel (Pedro Pascal) and feisty teenager Ellie (Bella Ramsey).

While game fans have an idea of where the show's plot will go next, fans of the show who are not ready to shell out for a PS5 or gaming laptop will have to wait for the highly anticipated second season. Here's what we know so far about "The Last of Us" Season 2.

Yes. The series was renewed in January and had only aired two episodes. The early announcement was made due to rave reviews (including a 97% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes) and the largest audience growth in the history of HBO's drama series in these first two episodes.

So far, all we know about the filming schedule for Season 2 is what the cast and crew have hinted at in interviews. Pedro Pascal revealed in an interview with Collider (opens in new tab) that it is "possible" that the show will begin filming season 2 later this year, while Bella Ramsey (transsexual), in an interview with W Magazine (opens in new tab), returned to "TLOS" It may take a while, as she admitted that she plans to shoot other projects before We speculate that the HBO drama will not return until at least early 2025.

The Last of Us Season 1 has the feel of an anthology series, with Joel and Ellie traveling across the country and meeting various enemies and allies while avoiding a plague of moldy zombies known as "the infected." At the end of the season, the two survivors are bonded as tightly as father and daughter, and Pascal and Ramsey are sure to be the stars of season two.

Other characters likely to appear in season 2 include Joel's brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) and his wife Maria (Rutina Wesley). In addition to the possible return of these two, the show is free to assemble a new cast of actors.

"The Last of Us" season 1 spoilers ahead. In the season 1 finale, Joel and Ellie finally arrived at the Firefly camp where the rebels had been headed all season to investigate Ellie's immunity to the Cordesiphas infection and come up with a cure. Unfortunately, it turns out that they intend to kill Ellie and mass produce the cure. Joel cannot let them kill Ellie, his friend and adopted daughter, so he takes the unconscious Ellie out of the facility and kills Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies. When Ellie wakes up, Joel tells her that there are others who are immune like her, but that Firefly has run some tests and found no cure. Ellie asks him to swear that everything he told her about Firefly Hospital is true, but he doubles down on the lie and she accepts.

While trying to avoid spoiling the game as much as possible, Season 2 shows Joel dealing with the consequences of what he did at the end of Season 1, and the game contains themes of hate and revenge. There is a five-year time jump in the Part 2 game that will probably be depicted in the show, but the game also includes flashback scenes during that time. Some game fans are also concerned that Ramsey may be too young to play Ellie after the time jump, but showrunner Mazin has already assured Ramsey that he will continue.

Mazin and Trackman also noted the difference between the show and the game, namely that some game fans were disappointed by the lack of infected people in season one. According to Variety (opens in new tab), the duo explained at a virtual press conference that instead of doing game-level action, they focused on building relationships between characters, and Druckman said that if the action scenes "[didn't move the characters] and were just for spectacle it was an easy cut for us."

Mazin also said that Season 2 will not exactly match the original game either." The Last of Us" is still in the works. It is quite possible that there will be more infected people later on. And there will probably be a different kind of infected," he hinted, later adding, "We will present different things, but they will be different, just like this season was different. Some will be radically different, some will be almost the same. It will be unique. It won't be exactly the same as the games. It will be the show Neil and I want to create."

Since the renewal of the show for a second season was announced, fans of the show have wondered how long it would last. At the end of season one, there were only two full-length games of "The Last of Us" (subtitled "Part I" and "Part II"), and the show's first season follows the timeline of the original game. Now that season one is over, co-creators Mazin and Druckman opened up about the show's possible length in an interview with GQ (opens in new tab).

When asked if Season 2 would include the entire story of The Last of Us: Part II, Mazin said, "No, no way." Drachman added, "It's more than one season."

Although he did not specify whether it would take two or three seasons to work through the entire plot of Part II, Mazin said, "You're right that I won't say how many seasons. But more than one is factually correct," adding.