The Last of Us Season 2 Episode Count Revealed, Story Details Teased

The episode count for The Last of Us Season 2 has been revealed.

Per Deadline, the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us, which is expected to premiere in 2024, will consist of seven episodes. While this is two episodes shorter than the first season, which consisted of nine episodes, series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann noted that the potential third season will be “significantly larger.”

“The story material that we got from Part II of the game is way more than the story material that was in the first game, so part of what we had to do from the start was figure out how to tell that story across seasons,” Mazin commented. “When you do that, you look for natural breakpoints, and as we laid it out, this season, the natural breakpoint felt like it came after seven episodes.”

The Last of Us’ showrunners tease Season 2 storyline

Speaking about where The Last of Us will go in the upcoming second season, Druckmann said, “It’s a continuation of love from the first season, and this is just the dark side of that coin, the pursuit of justice at any cost for the ones you love and the exploration of that.”

Mazin also said that “we will continue to do things our way,” adding, “Sometimes that means we do things just like the game, sometimes we do them differently. I think it’d be fair to say that since we are taking our time to dig into the story and expand certain areas, of course there are going to some things that are going to be expanded, but which characters and how we’ll keep that secret.”

Additionally, Mazin teased an episode that will be “quite big.” He said, “I like generally hitting about an hour, it’s a great length, I love working in that format. What we don’t want to do is, say a season of seven episodes where each episode is 90 minutes; part of why we’re doing seven episodes is finding that nice line.”

The Last of Us Season 2 stars Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller, Bella Ramsey as Ellie, Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, Young Mazino as Jesse, Isabela Merced as Dina, Danny Ramirez as Manny, Ariela Barer as Mel, Tati Gabrielle as Nora, Spencer Lord as Owen, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac Dixon, and Catherine O’Hara in an undisclosed role.

A premiere date has not yet been set for The Last of Us Season 2.