Its debut season garnered ecstatic reviews and captured the internet zeitgeist, and now The Last of Us fans have spent over a year itching to find out what happens next for Joel and Ellie.
But original followers, whose fandom dates back to the video game launch in 2013, might already be clued into what’s coming next.
Or are they? In Australia to promote the launch of season two on new platform Max, lead star Bella Ramsey hints it’s not what people might expect.
“There’s always pressure that comes with making a second season better than the first,” Bella, 21, tells TV WEEK. “This is definitely more epic and brilliant than the first. Fans will have big feelings about what goes down.”
In the highly anticipated second season, time has passed since Ellie, a teenager who’s mysteriously immune to the virus that turns humans into zombies, and smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) left the Fireflies and moved on, with Joel lying to Ellie about why they couldn’t stay.
Fans will recall that the Fireflies, a group of rebels who are seeking a cure for the virus, planned to let Ellie die so they could examine her brain. Now, five years on, Joel and Ellie are living as part of a group of survivors in Jackson – but are they really safe?
Joel’s lie about the Fireflies is still simmering between them. As they grapple with new territories and their strained relationship, the pair are forced to evaluate who they can trust.
“Their relationship has shifted this season and it wasn’t nice acting that coldness with Pedro,” Bella, 21, says. “In real life, we are warm and tactile, so it felt odd to be estranged from him.”
Since the two were thrust together into the limelight of the sci-fi hit, Bella says their co-star has been extremely protective of them.
“There’s a lot of care,” they says of the actor, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role as Joel. “We often joke that I look after him more than he looks after me, but he’s very sensitive and receptive to things. He’s been such a supporter of mine and I feel very safe with him.”
Joining the cast this season is Kaitlyn Dever as Abby, a member of the Fireflies who is on the hunt for Joel after he killed members of their group to protect Ellie.
The actress, who originally tried for the role of Ellie, has strong ties to the franchise through her father.
“It’s such a full-circle moment for me,” Kaitlyn, 28, says of joining the show. “Playing the game with my dad has been in the background of my life for 10 years. I guess it was meant to be.”
After losing her mother, Kathy, to breast cancer in 2024, Kaitlyn says sharing the experience of The Last of Us with her tight-knit family is “the best part of the job”. She also sees a lot of herself in Abby and the grief she endures.
“The way she carries herself is reflective of how broken she is and the emotional toll of that grief has had on her body,” Kaitlyn explains. “I took a lot of inspiration from her. But, honestly, I was taking a lot of parts of my life into Abby and some of the scenes were quite therapeutic for me.”
Having recently been in Australia to promote her role as con-woman Belle Gibson in Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar, Kaitlyn jokes that the Aussie accent came flooding back.
“Sometimes, I would let slip a ‘How ya going’ in my usual accent [American] and it sounds a bit funny,” she laughs. “And, being surrounded by it again, the actor in me wants to do it. It’s so much fun.”
The Last Of Us is available for streaming on Max in Australia.
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