The ongoing WGA writers' strike has hit HBO hard, and the head of drama, Francesca Orsi, has provided updates for a number of their upcoming projects including The Last of Us.
While prefacing this with that it's “too early to tell” how the scheduling for specific shows is impacted by the strike, Orsi said, “We were looking at The Last of Us for some time in 2025,” in an interview with Deadline.
She added that another HBO staple, The White Lotus, was ideally supposed to begin rolling cameras next year but “there's some question[s] about [the] timing of the strike.”
The Last of Us was a highly-successful adaptation of the classic Playstation game of the same name. It starred Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as Joel and Ellie, respectively, as the former has to escort the latter across the post-apocalyptic United States. Nico Parker, John Hannah, Gabriel Luna, and Nick Offerman also appear in the series in various capacities. It premiered on January 15, 2023, and was a viewership draw through its season finale on March 12. Deadline reported that the Season 1 finale drew 8.2 million viewers across HBO and its streaming platforms (which, at that point, was known as HBO Max) — bear in mind, they went head-to-head with this year's Oscars ceremony.
One would assume that The Last of Us Season 2 will adapt the sequel game, which was released in 2020. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will return for the second season.
The first season of The Last of Us is streaming on Max now.