‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Press Conference

Pedro Pascal in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

When it originally landed on our screens with its first season two years ago, ‘The Last of Us’ became an instant sensation, hailed for transferring its video game source material with care and authenticity while also expanding the complicated, emotional world originally built by Neil Druckmann and his team.

With Druckmann involved as a key collaborator alongside fellow show developer (and ‘Chernobyl’ limited series veteran) Craig Mazin, ‘The Last of Us’ tells the post-apocalyptic story of the world brought to ruin by mutated Cordyceps fungus, which spread through a global pandemic and turned a majority of the population into infected, transformed zombie-like creatures.

Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are two survivors trying to make their way through this difficult world.

Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Season 2 explores the fallout from the first, when Joel massacred a group looking to extract a cure from Ellie –– the procedure nearly killing her –– and is set five years later, with Joel and Ellie seemingly settled into a mountain community of fellow survivors in Jackson, Wyoming.

But Joel’s actions may yet catch up to him, and Ellie is finding other connections in this world.

Max held a virtual press conference with Pascal, Ramsey, Isabela Merced, Young Mazino, Gabriel Luna and Kaitlyn Dever, plus writer/producers Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin.

Here are 10 things we learned at that press conference, edited for clarity and length. ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 will debut with its first episode on Max on April 13th.

1) Bella Ramsey Is Excited For The Show To Be Back

Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Ramsey admitted they were nervous to see the reaction to the new season.

Bella Ramsey: It’s a little bit scary. When season one came out obviously it was this huge thing. I think I’m just so aware of season two coming out and everybody looking at it and looking at me and it’s quite scary, but it’s exciting. I’m trying to see it as a celebration of all the hard work that we did. I just hope that people will –– I mean, people are going to like it ––because these guys did an incredible job and we all went into it with complete trust for them. We’ve been carried and protected the whole way, so it’s pretty exciting and I hope that people will watch it.

2) Kaitlyn Dever Was Anxious About Joining The Show

Kaitlyn Dever in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Dever –– who was actually attached as Ellie back during a version of the story being made as a movie –– plays Abby Anderson, who has a reason to hate Joel.

Kaitlyn Dever: It was all of the feelings. I was nervous, I was anxious, but also very excited. I’ve been a huge fan of this game and the show for a very long time. The reach of this world is so, so big. The world of ‘The Last of Us’ is so large. You can feel that, even in wardrobe fittings when you’re first in prep and then finally getting on set. It still feels very big but I felt less nervous once I got onto set, just because of this wonderful group of people and being held by Craig and Neil.

3) Mazin Was Actually Very Impressed With Dever As Abby

Kaitlyn Dever in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

The co-writer/showrunner and occasional director was full of praise for Dever and her co-stars.

Mazin: Kaitlyn did things that I’m not sure she even should have done. I don’t know how you did them. We knew her, obviously, as an actor and what she could do, but when you then meet the person and you’re, “well, what can you actually do? What are you comfortable with?” Kaitlyn just would never say no. It was amazing. When you see how physically tremendous her performance is, it’s insane. We just haven’t f****d up in casting. We just haven’t f****d up.

4) Young Mazino Felt Fortunate To Have Gotten The Job

Young Mazino in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Mazino, who was seen in ‘Beef,’ plays Jesse, ex-boyfriend of Isabela Merced’s Dina and friend to Ellie.

Young Mazino: I felt incredibly fortunate. Joining a second season for something that was so well established the first time and the trust that I think Craig and Neil had in me to deliver on this character. I do remember getting more nervous when I stepped onto set and realizing the sheer scale of the town and seeing the huge gate that they built. That’s when I started to feel a little tripped out. But then, but then the longer I was there, I realized the energy was so, so warm and so inviting, and I feel like there was no ego on set. I think that’s a rare thing, especially the larger sets. I had such a blast. It was chill.

5) Ramsey and Pascal Talked About The Rifts That Have Formed in Ellie and Joel’s Adoptive Father/Daughter Dynamic

(L to R) Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in ‘The Last of Us’ season 1. Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO.

It’s clear when season 2 kicks off that in the years since the first, Ellie and Joel have seen emotional distance grow between them, which for the actors presented a challenge but also an opportunity.

Ramsey: Obviously a lot has changed over those five years. Ellie was 14 and now is 19. I think in any teenager’s life that’s always the formative years, so that definitely informed it. But there’s deeper reasons for their little rift. I didn’t enjoy the feeling of feeling estranged from Pedro within a scene. It wasn’t a nice feeling. When the cameras were rolling. In real life, we still sort of each other, just about! But it was definitely interesting.

6) Pascal Addressed Treating a Show Such as ‘The Last of Us’ as Escapism When It Still Confronts Real-World Issues

Pedro Pascal in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

The actor opened up about the show’s depth of theme and feeling.

Pascal: I think that storytelling is cathartic in so many ways, always has been. It’s the way that human beings have made testimony to life. Whether it was handprints on the walls inside of a cave to television show that you can stream on Max. So, for me, growing up, all of my development was based on books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen, and television that I’ve watched. So, it’s very much going to reflect the human experience. Under such extreme circumstances, I think that there’s a very healthy and sometimes sick pleasure in that catharsis, in a safe space, to see human relationships under crisis and in pain and intelligently draw political allegory, societal allegory based off of the world that we’re living in and, and very beautifully and very intelligently.

7) Druckmann Was Asked About the Show’s Change to Abby’s Backstory Introduction

(L to R) Danny Ramirez, Tati Gabrielle, Ariela Barer, Kaitlyn Dever, and Spencer Lord in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

‘The Last of Us’ makes a key change to Dever’s character Abby, setting up her backstory immediately as opposed to the game, which holds it off for a while.

Druckmann: In the game [Part 2], you play as Abby, so you immediately form an empathic connection with her because you’re surviving as her. You’re running through the snow, you’re fighting infected, and we can withhold certain things and make it a mystery that will be revealed later in the story. We couldn’t do that in the show because you’re not playing as her, so we need other tools. That context gave us that shortcut. Something similar happened in season one when the first game starts with you playing as Sarah, and we didn’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting for you to care about Sarah, because you’re playing as her, you’re experiencing the outbreak as her. In the show, we had to spend quite a bit of time to achieve something similar.

8) Asked What The Most Satisfying Moment Was to Adapt, Mazin Gave a Careful Answer

(L to R) Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann on the set of ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Not wanting to give away spoilers, Mazin talked about his favorite scene to craft.

Mazin: There is –– I don’t want to say what it is –– but there was a scene in the in the final episode of the season. It’s quite impactful in the game, but there was this evolution of it as we put it on film that blows me away. Those moments are very exciting. But I have to admit, there’s also –– this is not a spoiler, it’s in the trailer –– you see Pedro and Bella both by the space capsule in the museum and that scene is the first thing that Neil ever showed me from [the game] ‘The Last of Us Part Two.’ It’s beautiful and watching them inhabit that and make it their own was pretty spectacular. [doing Larry David impression] Pretty, pretty good. We’ll let you watch it sometime.

9) Isabela Merced Talked About What Dina Means To Her

Isabela Merced in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2. Photograph by Liane Hentscher/HBO.

The actor discussed her character, who starts a relationship with Ellie in the new season.

Isabela Merced: I kind of see Dina as an extension of myself. If I were in an apocalyptic situation, I would try to lighten it up a bit. I think that’s our superpower as humans, is we really have the power to shift our perspective and make our own reality. I think Dina is also Ellie’s compass and light, in a way. I think Dina’s also grieving at the same time, and we explore that. I think it’s going to be really fun to get to know Dina as more than just “the funny guy.” I think Craig does a great job of well-rounding his characters like that.

10) Mazin Says That We Can Expect At Least One More Standalone Episode This Year

(L to R) Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett in ‘The Last of Us’ season 1. Photo: Liane Hentscher/HBO.

Following the wide praise for the standalone diversion episode ‘Long, Long Time,’ which told the story of survivors Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), the showrunner explained there will be more.

Mazin: One thing that Neil and I talked about was just making sure that we didn’t just say, “Oh, you know, that Bill and Frank episode… people really liked that. Let’s do a very special episode of ‘The Last of Us’ Season Two.” It just has to happen as it happens. But I will say that there is a gorgeous episode this season directed by Neil that is different. it’s not Bill and Frank, but it is, in its own way, its own thing, because it needed to be. Just you wait.

“Every path has a price.”

TV-MA2 SeasonsJanuary 15th, 2023

What is the plot of ‘The Last of Us’ season 2?

Five years after the events of the first season, Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.