EXCLUSIVE: Craig Mazin, co-creator of arguably the most acclaimed TV adaptation of a video game to date, HBO‘s The Last Of Us, will be taking on another hugely popular and acclaimed game title next, Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3, which is set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
HBO is developing Baldur’s Gate, a drama series based on Hasbro Entertainment’s video game franchise, with Mazin attached to create, write, executive produce and showrun the TV adaptation. Also exec producing are Jacqueline Lesko, Cecil O’Connor and Hasbro Entertainment’s Gabriel Marano. Chris Perkins, the longtime Head of Story at Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, which is behind the D&D game franchise, will serve as consultant.
Unlike HBO’s The Last Of Us, which retold the story from the PlayStation games, the Baldur’s Gate TV series will be a continuation to the games, telling a story that takes place immediately after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, as the characters — old and new — are dealing with the ramifications of the events in the third game.
Like with The Last Of Us, Mazin’s passion for Baldur’s Gate 3 and its characters led to his decision to adapt it as a TV series. He has proudly completed the Swen Vincke-developed game on the challenging honor mode, and he is also a longtime D&D fan, a Dungeon Master who has been playing the game weekly for the past 15 years, including tonight.
“After putting nearly 1000 hours into the incredible world of Baldur’s Gate 3, it is a dream come true to be able to continue the story that Larian and Wizards of The Coast created,” Mazin said. “I am a devoted fan of D&D and the brilliant way that Swen Vincke and his gifted team adapted it. I can’t wait to help bring Baldur’s Gate and all of its incredible characters to life with as much respect and love as we can, and I’m deeply grateful to Gabe Marano and his team at Hasbro for entrusting me with this incredibly important property.”
With no ties to another Baldur’s Gate game in development, Mazin has freedom over the direction of the story, making it more of a traditional show vs. The Last of Us whose plot and lifespan were determined by the existing games. As Deadline has reported, the post-apocalyptic drama is expected to end with its upcoming third season. Baldur’s Gate slated to be Mazin’s followup series for HBO where he also created and executive produced the Emmy-winning Chernobyl.
Baldur’s Gate is designed to be ongoing and continue with different kinds of stories within the sprawling world of the game. The series draws deeply from the source material of Baldur’s Gate 3 — how it begins how the game ends — and not so much from the first two games which are not official source material. Still, there are some commonalities across those games that are connected to Dungeons & Dragons lore, which Mazin plans to draw upon under the agreement with Wizards of the Coast.
The TV series will feature both existing characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 and new ones. It is expected to keep the D&D tradition of taking new characters who are not that powerful and follow their journey through adventures that make them powerful. The new protagonists are bound to run into beloved characters from Baldur’s Gate 3 — some of them heroes, some of them villains, some of them literally devils — who occupy the same world. Now incredibly powerful, they will meddle, helping or hindering the new heroes.
Mazin, who is just now starting his own journey with the material as his deal just closed, plans to reach out to voice cast members of Baldur’s Gate 3 with ideas for them to participate in the TV adaptation, if possible. He and The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann did it on their HBO series with several actors from that game, most notably Merle Dandridge who reprised her role as Marlene. Mazin, who has an overall deal with HBO, is now in final prep on Season 3 of The Last of Us.
“We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Craig Mazin on Baldur’s Gate,” Francesca Orsi, EVP, Head of HBO Drama Programming said. “His deep and long-standing passion for the source material paired with his remarkable talent for building immersive worlds filled with rich, compelling characters promises groundbreaking results.”
HBO’s Baldur’s Gate is designed to co-exist alongside The Forgotten Realms live-action Dungeons & Dragons series Hasbro Entertainment has set up at Netflix with Shawn Levy producing. The two share D&D’s The Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which is vast and could accommodate multiple TV series.
“The fans have been eagerly awaiting an adaptation of Baldur’s Gate, and we could not ask for better partners than HBO and the incomparable Craig Mazin to build this world with,” Gabriel Marano, Head of Television, Hasbro Entertainment said.
Hasbro Entertainment also has a Power Rangers live-action series in the works at Disney+ and a couple of other high-profile series in the marketplace.
Part of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, the Baldur’s Gate character-driven role-playing video game series originated in 1998 and became known for its mature setting of crime, political intrigue, and edgy adventure. The most recent game, Baldur’s Gate 3, launched to massive critical and commercial success with over 15 million lifetime players, over 34 industry award wins, and made history as the first game to win all five major Game of The Year awards.
Mazin is repped by CAA; Hasbro Entertainment is repped by WME.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: HBO, Disney, Netflix, FX
Come, weepers! Come, sobbers! Come, ugly-ass criers! You are all welcome here at our annual countdown of the scripted TV moments that undid us emotionally in 2025. Our tear ducts definitely got a workout this year, as television offered up a bounty of gut-wrenching, sob-inducing moments. There were major character deaths and thwarted happy endings and a devastating breakdown against a backdrop of cartoon forest animals. Are you ready to relive all these weepy moments and more? Ready to let television stir the deepest part of your soul? Ready to slide down a door while crying out that it’s all just too damn much? Cool, me too. Below, find the ten moments from the 2025 TV season that we’re still crying over.
Forever, “Forever …”
Photo: Netflix
Justin and Keisha actually break up about halfway through Forever’s finale, and while it’s certainly upsetting, it’s both inevitable and refreshing to watch two 18-year-olds come to the wildly mature conclusion they need to let each other go so that both of them can figure out who they are and what they want. But this is by no means the most emotional moment of the episode. That gut-wrenching honor is saved for later when they meet up one more time at the end of the episode to say good-bye before Keisha leaves for Howard while Justin stays in L.A. to pursue music. There’s no awkwardness, just two people who love and care about each other, who are grateful for what the other gave them. Their final moment together is dripping with bittersweetness. As Frank Ocean’s cover of “Moon River” kicks in, there’s nothing more for these two to say, so instead they take each other in one last time; there’s sadness and longing in their expressions, and also an undeniable feeling of hope that they might find each other again someday. But until then, they have to walk away.
There we were, innocently thinking 9-1-1 is an insane procedural about bee tornadoes and cops in space, when along comes the surprise death of a main character to leave you drowning in a puddle of your own tears. When Angela Bassett cries, I cry, this is just a rule to live by. Part of that reaction comes down to shock — both that the show would actually kill off Peter Krause’s Bobby Nash, arguably the lead of the ensemble, and at the reveal that Bobby knew the whole time that he was infected with the virus they were called in to contain, but kept quiet so that Chimney, also infected, would get the only dose of the antidote. The other reason this hits so hard? Krause and Bassett are 9-1-1’s mom and dad, so from the moment Bobby says, “I want some time alone with my wife,” you know we are in for it. He tells Athena he loves her, that he would choose her if he could, and then proceeds to bleed out right in front of her. He wants her to go, but she refuses to leave his side until it’s over.
There’s nothing like a catharsis cry, and that’s exactly what Task serves up in its final montage of what befalls both Tom Brandis and Maeve Prendergast once the Dark Hearts case is wrapped up for good (for now). In the end, Tom, who has taken in Sam, the young boy who accidentally stumbled into Robbie’s revenge tour on the Dark Hearts, must let his foster son go. It’s bittersweet to watch Tom “be unselfish” with his love, knowing that giving up Sam is ultimately the best thing for a boy who needs — deserves — stability that Tom can’t give at the moment. (That shot of Emily helping Sam button up his shirt before meeting his new family? Makes me sob every single time.) But forgiving his own son and letting Sam into his heart has offered Tom a fresh start. He seems somehow lighter at the end of all this — isn’t Mark Ruffalo so good at his job?
But Tom is not the only one given this ending. Maeve, too, makes an unselfish act by taking her young cousins into her care and giving them a new life somewhere else. Moving out of that house is the only way forward, but Maeve also makes sure not to dismiss what happened there — she still wants to honor her late father and uncle. For a show as bleak and depressing as Task is for most of its seven episodes, having it end on such a note of overwhelming hopefulness is a welcome and moving surprise.
Honestly, when are you not crying while watching Adolescence? Its one-take formula is made to break you — there are no breathers, the intensity simply keeps building to its apex. This is especially true in the final episode, as we watch Jamie’s parents, Eddie and Manda, and his sister, Lisa, attempt and repeatedly fail to make Eddie’s birthday a celebratory one, even after they wake up to a slur spray-painted on the side of his van. It feels almost in reach until Jamie calls and informs his family that he’s changing his plea to guilty. The dam of emotion Eddie has been holding in bursts, and upstairs in their bedroom, Eddie and Manda have a teary, honest conversation about how they should’ve done better with their son. It feels like the first time they are admitting to the enormous guilt they’ve been internally grappling with. “We made him,” Manda says more than once. They made every part of him, and to have any shot at moving forward, they have to own it.
Severance has the most complicated and most heartbreaking love triangle on television. With four people and only three bodies, will anyone come out of this thing with even the tiniest bit of a happy ending? Sure, you can’t fault Innie Mark for choosing to stay with Helly and, you know, continue existing, but the implications of that choice are absolutely devastating for Outie Mark and Gemma. For two years, he’s been mourning her “death” and she’s had her brain severed 25 times. Mark’s plan to go rescue his wife is so risky and so insane and so fucking triumphant that it is impossible not to burst into tears the moment Gemma steps out of the Cold Harbor room and returns to her old self, recognizing her husband standing in front of her. Finally, Outie Mark and Gemma are reunited, and the mix of joy and relief and love on Adam Scott and Dichen Lachman’s faces as their characters take each other in wallops you. Mark and Gemma’s elevator ride might be the biggest emotional whiplash on television this year: One second you are crying tears of joy as Mark finally gets to kiss his wife again, and then you get punched in the gut in a whole new way when they reach the severed floor and return to Innie Mark and Miss Casey. It’s a real “Didn’t we almost have it all?” moment, and I would like it severed from my brain immediately.
Andor uses the fact that it’s a prequel to Rogue One to its advantage several times throughout its two-season run, but never does that fact deliver a more emotional blow than when Bix sacrifices her romance with Cassian for the good of the Rebellion. Cassian is ready to leave the war against the Empire behind for a quiet, happy life with Bix, but she refuses to let him choose her over that fight, so she secretly leaves the rebel base, and Cassian, in the middle of the night. When he finds her good-bye video the next morning, she’s already long gone, despite his desperate run out to the ships to see if he can catch her. (Diego Luna’s face here — kill me.) Now, this would all be heartbreaking on its own — especially when paired with Brandon Roberts’s gorgeous scoring of this scene — but the waterworks really start to flow when Bix promises Cassian that once they win this war, she will find him and they can live the life they want together. Her hope is devastating because we know that none of this will ever happen, that Cassian is destined to sacrifice his life for the rebellion. We know that they will never see each other again. Fuck you, Rogue One!
Unless you stayed off the internet for the two years in between seasons one and two of The Last of Us, you likely already knew that Pedro Pascal’s Joel was living on borrowed time. Abby’s brutal, fatal revenge on Joel for murdering her father to save Ellie back in season one was hardly a surprise, and yet that doesn’t blunt the emotional impact. The entire sequence is hard to watch, not only because the sheer level of violence is a shock to the system, but also because of how devastating it is to see Ellie, who tries so hard to act older than she is, shed that veneer and become instantly childlike. She knows he’s dead, but this doesn’t stop her from crawling over to him in tears to hold his hand one last time, just a kid begging the only father she’s ever known to live. Bella Ramsey sells the hell out of this moment, and the scene only becomes more potent on rewatch since by the end of the season we learn that when Ellie told Jesse at the beginning of this episode that she and Joel will be just fine, she really meant it — they were on the precipice of healing what was broken between them. She left for that patrol feeling hopeful, she returned from it forever changed.
Upload, “Mile End”
Photo: Prime
Upload has absolutely zero business going this hard. Yet this silly rom-com — about a dead guy named Nathan whose consciousness is uploaded to a swanky virtual afterlife where he falls in love with customer-service rep Nora — wraps up its final season with an episode that goes so hard I did, admittedly, ugly-cry just thinking about it hours after watching. Nathan and Nora have already had to fight for their happily-ever-after through developments including, but not limited to, getting downloaded into the clone body his clingy ex grew for him, and getting kidnapped by evil billionaires who upload him over 100 times while running evil billionaire experiments on him. And just when they’re finally reunited, they realize that Nathan’s brain will never recover and he’s dying — there’s nothing they can do to stop it. They’ll never get a lifetime of happiness together, but they do have a few hours. Nora gets Nathan home and they lie in bed, where she uses her VR goggles to take him to Montreal, the place they planned to run off to together. They watch the sunset while Nathan tells Nora happy birthday and good morning and asks what she wants for dinner — all the little conversations they’ll never get to have. And then he tells her how happy she made him, that she was the love of his life, “this one. And the next one and the one after that …” and then he’s gone. In the real world, she takes off their goggles and holds him just a little bit longer. And now I’m crying again. Like I said, Upload goes hard.
Half of this list could be filled with scenes from The Pitt even though the medical series generally prioritizes authenticity over sentimentality. Maybe that’s the reason its most emotional moments hit so hard — it all feels so real. This is especially true of Noah Wyle’s performance as Dr. Robby, our stalwart leader, the calming voice in the shitstorm that is this season-long shift. It’s honestly a miracle the guy goes 13 hours before breaking down. You know it’s coming, too, as Robby, already attempting to compartmentalize his PTSD, collects one loss after another in the wake of the Pitt Fest shooting. But it’s his inability to save Jake’s girlfriend that finally does him in. Robby holds back tears as he tries to explain himself to his ex’s son, he sobs as he rattles off a list of people we’ve watched die throughout the season, and finally he erupts, kicking Jake out so he can be alone, weeping on the floor of that pediatric room turned morgue. The desperation as Robby falls apart is agonizing to watch, and yet there is some sense of relief, too, that this guy who has been trying to hold it all together for his team and for his patients is finally allowing himself to feel the full devastation of the shift from hell.
Well, it’s right there in the title: This is a series about death. But Dying for Sex is much more than a solemn march as Molly’s terminal cancer takes her life, and two of its most magical elements, the ones that elevate it beyond some schmaltzy weepfest, really get to shine in the finale. First, there’s the pitch-perfect blend of comedy and tragedy. You will be crying for this entire episode — yes, even during the flying-penis bit — but you’ll be laughing, too. Laughing through tears, there’s really nothing like it. The second, of course, is the gorgeous friendship between Molly and Nikki, which anchors the show thanks to two fierce performances from Michelle Williams and Jenny Slate. When it gets to the end, Nikki and Molly, who has been in hospice and is in so much pain she asks to be sedated, go into it knowing this will be the last conversation they’ll ever have. As Molly drifts off, Nikki tells her that she’s grateful, that she’s proud of her, that she loves her. Molly takes one last look at her best friend and says good-bye with a simple yet deeply rooted truth: “You were my favorite person in the whole wide world.” Molly may finally be free of pain, but the rest of us are left as crumpled-up disaster zones on the couch, attempting to wipe away the seemingly never-ending snot and tears spewing from our faces before making a much-needed call to our best friends.
Do you ever find yourself sitting in the movie theatre, yelling at the screen, annoying everyone around you? You just can’t help yourself! If those movie characters would just make better decisions, then you wouldn’t feel compelled to tell them what to do! Do you ever wish you could control the actions of movie characters? With a little known technology called “video games,” now you can. Picture this: a movie where you get to call all the shots. You want the main character to jump off a cliff? That’s your prerogative. With these 10 video games that feel like playing a movie, you get to be the director, the actor, and the screenwriter all at once!
(Konami)
Created by the incomparable game designer genius Hideo Kojima, the Metal Gear series is easily one of the most cinematic video game franchises ever made. A military alternate history that takes place across decades, each game in the series feels like its own film sub-genre. Metal Gear Solid is a gritty 90’s spy thriller. Metal Gear Solid 3 is a 60’s Cold War flick with its own James Bond-style theme song. Metal Gear Solid 4 is a sci-fi dystopian epic. But when it comes to pure cinema, Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is the franchise’s crown jewel. Centered around a mercenary company caught in the middle of the Russia-Afghanistan war, the plot follows a grizzled soldier’s attempt to seek revenge against the man who nearly destroyed everything he and his comrades built. When your main character is motion captured and voice acted by Kiefer Sutherland himself, you know you’re making video game movie magic.
The Last of Us Series
(Sony Interactive Entertainment)
The franchise that elevated video game narratives into full blown Oscar bait, The Last of Us series feels like a play-through of a Best Picture winner. The franchise is set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a fungus, one that has turned human beings into mushroomy zombies. The first game follows grizzled smuggler named Joel on his quest to deliver his most precious cargo yet: a little girl who is immune to the virus. While the brutal gameplay and emotional weight of the game make it feel like post-apocalyptic greats such as Children of Men and 28 Days Later, the true “movie” quality of the games comes from the choices that it forces you to make. Much of the series’ narratives revolve around morally complicated choices that are made for you, that the game expects you to execute on. And when I say “execute,” I mean that in the most homicidal sense of the word. You are not the main character – their choices are their own. You might control the pace of the plot, but you can’t change the script.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
(Ninja Theory)
If A24 ever decided to make a game, it would probably look a lot like Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. A mythological folk horror, the plot follows 8th century Pict warrior Senua on a quest into Helheim in order to save the soul of her lover. Carrying her beloved’s severed head with her, Senua navigates the abyss at the cost of her own sanity. Deeply cerebral, the game is essentially a downward spiral into madness – Senua’s mental state becomes more tortured the deeper she goes. The boss fights are close quarters affairs that feel more like nightmare sequences than standard gameplay combat. There’s something deeply troubled about this game – it’s a haunted version of The Northman. A decaying Green Knight. Beowulf dipped in blood.
Red Dead Redemption 2
(Rockstar Games)
While Red Dead Redemption was an epic Western in its own right, the sequel upped the cinematic feel of the series to Sergio Leone levels. Set in the dying days of the Old West, the story follows a group of outlaws on the run from the long arm of the law – and they’re running out of places to hide. As Pinkerton agents close in on all sides, the gang’s charismatic leader Dutch van der Linde slowly begins to lose his composure, while the group’s strongman Arthur Morgan begins to question the morality and sustainability of the outlaw life they lead. Red Dead Redemption 2 is bigger than a movie, it’s an entire HBO series like Deadwood. A larger than life epic about one man’s relationship to honor – honor upheld or left behind.
Grand Theft Auto V
(Rockstar)
The ultimate video game satire, Grand Theft Auto V is a sardonic reflection on the modern age. It feels like if Black Mirror abandoned its sci-fi trappings and decided to take a stab at the world of today – painting L.A. with its dark and cynical brush. Set in the mirror world of Los Santos, the story follows a trio of criminals from separate walks of life, all attempting to get rich quick in a rat race world. It’s got the madcap crime thriller humor of a Guy Ritchie movie combined with the American sleaze of Heat and Scarface. Nasty people in a nasty world who are tired of keeping up nice appearances – not that the sociopathic Trevor was ever concerned about his appearance to begin with, but you get what I mean.
Okami
(Capcom)
One of the most underrated games of all time, Okami feels like a Studio Ghibli film that never was. The plot is set in mythological Japan, and the player takes control of a wolf named Amaterasu who is the reincarnation of the sun goddess. Winding her way through a stunning, brushstroke world, Amaterasu comes face to snout with characters from Japanese folklore. Maiden devouring serpents, drunken samurai warriors, demon-possessed royals, wandering gods, and young girl who was born out of a stalk of bamboo. While it lacks the cinematic cutscenes of more modern games, it makes up for it with is gorgeous brushwork worlds that feels straight out of Princess Mononoke.
The Uncharted Series
(Naughty Dog)
The video game version of Indiana Jones, the Uncharted series is a Spielberg-esque globe trotting romp. The franchise follows historian and adrenaline junkie Nathan Drake on his never-ending quest for artifacts lost to time. The game takes the player into classic adventure film worlds: steaming jungle ruins, forgotten mountain temples, lost cities of the desert, and forgotten coves where pirates stashed loot long ago. With its run and gun play style and stunning set pieces, the game feels like you’re flying by the seat of your cargo pants. The train level in Uncharted 2? Perhaps one of the cinematic gaming sequences ever designed.
Detroit: Become Human
(Quantic Dream)
Building off of the “playable movie” groundwork of genre pioneer Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human is a sci-fi epic that stands alongside Blade Runner. Taking place in 2038, the action is set in a world where androids live alongside humans – though they are (supposedly) deprived of free will and emotion. You cycle between playing as one of three androids – a police investigator, a housekeeper, and a caretaker for an elderly painter. After bearing witness to a morally grey legal system, domestic abuse, and android discrimination respectively, each character embarks on a “choose your own adventure” style journey that will change their city forever. There aren’t traditional combat sequences, rather playable cutscenes with timed dialogue options and the choice between different prescribed actions. It’s the most traditionally “cinematic” game on this list – a movie where instead of yelling at the screen when a character makes a bad decision, you can yell at yourself when you make one.
God of War
(Santa Monica Studio)
While the God of War franchise made a name for itself with its breathtakingly cinematic combat sequences, the series reached its video game movie apex in the modern era. God of War trades the hack and slash brutality of its predecessors to tell an emotional story based around an older and (somewhat) wiser Kratos – an emotionally stunted man attempting to bond with his young son. The most cinematic aspect of the game is its “one take” cinematography. The “cutscenes” don’t cut at all, but rather the game’s over the shoulder camera simply tracks the characters cinematically during narrative moments. Like Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, the lack of cuts make the game feel as impressive as real one take wonder films like Victoria – made all the more jaw dropping by its mythological magnitude.
Max Payne 3
(Rockstar)
An underrated Neo-noire gem, Max Payne 3 plays like a combination mobster movie and gritty crime thriller. The plot follows alcoholic hero Max Payne, whose marksmanship skills are equally as sharp as his one-liners. Hired to serve as a bodyguard to a wealthy South American family, things quickly go awry after the family’s socialite children are kidnapped by criminals. The gameplay is made cinematic as hell through the use of “bullet time” which allows Max to launch himself through the air in slow motion while picking off foes with surgical precision. The plot unfolds with the brutality of crime epics like City of God and Elite Squad, buoyed by Max’s dry humor noir witticisms – “I had a hole in my second favorite drinking arm” is a favorite line to this day.
Sarah Fimm (they/them) is actually nine choirs of biblically accurate angels crammed into one pair of $10 overalls. They have been writing articles for nerds on the internet for less than a year now. They really like anime. Like… REALLY like it. Like you know those annoying little kids that will only eat hotdogs and chicken fingers? They’re like that… but with anime. It’s starting to get sad.
Wizards of the Coast is far from done with its crossover decks for Magic: The Gathering. After Final Fantasyand Spider-Man this year, coming up next is more Final Fantasy and PlayStation, of all things.
During a Friday panel at MagicCon Atlanta, the company revealed a new suite of Final Fantasy cards and products. On Friday, December 5, new Scene Boxes, the Chocobo Bundle, and the Final Fantasy VII Commander Deck will be available at retailers. Scene and Chocobo boxes will come with different amounts of Play Boosters—three boosters for Scene Boxes, and 10 for Chocobo—plus a number of cards in different formats like track foil, foil borderless, and non-foil. Scene Boxes, which have “Children of Fate,” “Garland at the Chaos Shrine,” and “Camp Comrades” cover art (covering Final Fantasy VIII, the original Final Fantasy, and Final Fantasy XV, respectively), come with a display easel to pose the art cards, while Chocobo bundles feature a themed click wheel to track your life value in a game, as well as the chance to get special Chocobo-themed alternate art cards of cards from across the Final Fantasy set.
Meanwhile, the Final Fantasy VII Commander Deck features a new “Cloud, Midgard Mercenary” promo card depicting the original Final Fantasy VII promo art of Cloud in Midgar in a traditional foil format, as well as a download code for the original Final Fantasy VII. Otherwise, it’s mechanically identical to the original version of the card.
Before the new FF7 release, Magic: The Gathering is dipping into PlayStation with a Secret Lair collaboration featuring unique cards themed around the console’s big current franchises like Horizon, God of War, and The Last of Us. Of those, Naughty Dog’s got the most—the majority of its cards focus on The Last of Us, and one is for Uncharted—while God of War has three to its name, and Horizon and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima have one each. The drops will be available in foil and non-foil variants.
The Secret Lair x PlayStation collaboration launches October 27, and the new FinalFantasy packs on December 5. Next up for Magic: The Gathering in 2026? More Marvel and Star Trek.
The 2025 Emmys took place this past weekend, and Andorwalked away with several wins for its final season, among many highlights for genre media across both nights of awards.
While the sci-fi series didn’t win its Best Drama or Best Directing nominations, it took home Best Writing in a Drama for “Welcome to the Rebellion”. During Saturday’s Creative Arts Emmys, the episode “Who Are You?” took home awards for Outstanding Production Design in a Narrative Period/Fantasy Drama, Picture Editing, and “Harvest” won for Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes. The overall season also took the win in Special Visual Effects.
Elsewhere, Severancewon eight Emmys: Trammell Tillman for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama, Britt Lower for Lead Actress in a Drama, Meritt Weaver for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama (“Who Is Alive?”), and technical wins for Outstanding Title Design, Sound Mixing (“Cold Harbor”), Music Composition (“Cold Harbor”), Cinematography (“Hello, Ms. Cobel”), and Production Design (“Chikhai Bardo”).
HBO also got wins for The Penguin and The Last of Us: the former’s triumphs include Cristin Milioti for Lead Limited Series/Anthology Actress and Mick Giacchino for Music Composition, and Contemporary Makeup (both prosthetic and non-prosthetic) for the episodes “Cent’anni” and “After Hours.” The Last of Us’ technical win was for sound editing in the episode “Through the Valley.”
You can see the highlights list of Emmys winners for the 2025 season below, with winners highlighted in bold, and see the full list of winners from the night here.
Outstanding Drama Series
Andor
The Diplomat
The Last of Us
Paradise
The Pitt (WINNER)
Severance
Slow Horses
The White Lotus
Best Actor in a Drama Series
Sterling K. Brown, Paradise
Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
Adam Scott, Severance
Noah Wyle, The Pitt (WINNER)
Best Actress in a Drama Series
Kathy Bates, Matlock
Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters
Britt Lower, Severance (WINNER)
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Outstanding Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
Shrinking
The Studio (WINNER)
What We Do in the Shadows
Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
Seth Rogen, The Studio (WINNER)
Jason Segel, Shrinking
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear
Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Uzo Aduba, The Residence
Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Jean Smart, Hacks (WINNER)
Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
Adolescence (WINNER)
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The Penguin
Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series
Colin Farrell, The Penguin
Stephen Graham, Adolescence (WINNER)
Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocent
Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief
Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
In early July, Druckmann announced that he would be less involved with the details of production for Season 3, which will focus on Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) perspective like the video game does.
“I’ve been enjoying working on the show so much, especially now that I’ve stepped away from the day-to-day responsibilities. I’ve been missing it a little bit, missing the people I’ve worked with. I made a lot of really good friends. I’ve worked with really insanely talented people from actors and department heads,” he told Deadline.
Though Druckmann won’t write or direct any episodes for Season 3, he remains as a co-creator and executive producer on the series, which has several nominations tonight for Season 2.
“I’m super proud of [the show]. There’s a lot that was very authentic, a lot that we expanded on with the universe and I’m excited to see how we wrap it all up,” the creator added.
He also teased work with actress Tati Gabrielle, who portrayed Nora in Season 2 of The Last of Us, on his new project, the video game Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
Tati Gabrielle in ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2
Max
“You have certain expectations when you write a character, and the character of Jordan A. Mun that Tati plays in Intergalactic is quite a complex one,” he said. “There’s a very complex arc that she goes through.”
Druckmann, who also serves as the head of PlayStation’s Naughty Dog video game studio, teased that Gabrielle’s performance has shifted initial work for her character in the game.
“To see the dimensions that Tati’s brought to it, the charm that she brought to it, there’s a bad-ass-ness to her that she’s bringing to it,” he said. “To see how she plays off of all the rest of our cast — and we have a pretty elaborate cast in this game — it’s exceeded my expectations, and her performance is so inspiring. It has changed some of the writing based on what she’s brought to the table.”
The online discourse surrounding The Last of Usseason two was entrenched in unwarranted outrage, sparked by outrage over the show’s centering a gay love story and killing off the franchise’s leading man. The trolling, which resulted in the show getting review bombed, of course, is weird considering that both these major plot aspects are also present in Neil Druckmann’s series of Naughty Dog games.
Recently Bella Ramsey, the show’s Emmy Award-nominated lead (alongside Pedro Pascal), discussed with The Awardist podcast their reaction to the reactive rage-baiters who took issue with Ellie’s lesbian relationship.
“Because there’s nothing I can do about it anyway. The show is out. There’s nothing that can be changed or altered. So I’m like, there’s not really any point in reading or looking at anything,” Ramsey shared. “People are, of course, entitled to their opinions. But it doesn’t affect the show; it doesn’t affect how the show continues or anything in any way. They’re very separate things to me. So no, I just don’t really engage.”
Ramsey addressed how that vocal minority of vile-spewing can sincerely excuse themselves from engaging with season three, which will see showrunner Craig Mazin, helming solo after Druckmann stepped back, follow the show’s antagonist Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), who killed Joel (Pascal). The story twist has been around since it debuted in the game, but it still continues to divide The Last of Us fandom and shock casual show viewers during season two.
The shift in leading characters will delve into Abby’s world to inform her worldview. How Ellie comes into play is under wraps but Ramsey affirmed that they hope haters steer clear if they won’t approach the story with an open mind: “You don’t have to watch it. If you hate it that much, the game exists. You can just play the game again. If you do want to watch it, hope you enjoy it.”
Season two of The Last of Uscame and went earlier this year, and we already know its third season is on the horizon. Whereas the first two seasons were a team effort between showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann and writer Hailey Gross, this next season will have Mazin as sole showrunner and writer—Druckmann, who also runs game developer Naughty Dog, is devoting his time to the studio’s next project, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet.
In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Mazin discussed his writing process, which he said won’t change now that his co-writers have exited the show. According to him, not much is going to change, since Druckmann’s “always had a full-time job running Naughty Dog, so it’s always been me up in Canada [where the production is].” Before Druckmann and Gross left, Mazin got “so much” out of them while working on the first two seasons, and they’d already been thinking about the future while working on the second season.
“We really did get that work in. You can’t really tell half that story without thinking about what the whole story could be,” Mazin continued, referencing adapting only half of The Last of Us Part II. When the show returns, audiences will see things from Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) point of view before, during, and after the previous season. If you thought season was too short at seven episodes, the third may have more. Mazin told THR he and HBO are “currently fiddling around” with the specifics, but he’s looking at making this next season “more on par” with the first’s nine episodes to provide “more bang for the buck.”
Mazin didn’t just create and write the show, he’s also directed the first episode of each season. He revealed directing the premieres can be easy and allow for a full season prep, and now that that he’s sole showrunner, it’s on him to ensure “everything is fitting together tonally. We have directors alternating, and I’m on set doing—I don’t know what you’d call it—’showrunner QC’ sounds insulting to our directors, who are amazing.” He’s open to helming more than the premiere next season, but admitted it would be “hard to go prep something while I’m also still writing. We’ll see if I can get away with directing more than one [episode].”
The Last of Us is set to return for season three in 2027, so we’ve got time before we know how many episodes it’ll have, what it’ll change or update for Abby’s side of the story, and how much longer it’ll go on.
HBO has released the first footage of the second season of The Last of Us, and it implies that things for Pedro Pascal’s Joel may be a little bit different than they are in the game. No, not that different, but it seems like he might be going to therapy.
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The brief, 24-second teaser shows a few familiar scenes originating from The Last of Us Part II. These include the dance scene in which Bella Ramsey’s Ellie kisses Dina, flashes of characters like Jeffrey Wright’s Isaac who leads the militaristic Washington Liberation Front, and a few glimpses of the Seraphites, the Seattle cult which also occupies the city. But one character seems to be someone entirely new. This person, played by Schitt’s Creek and Home Alone actor Catherine O’Hara, seems to be Joel’s therapist. She is shown asking if he hurt Ellie, which he denies. Instead, he insists he saved her.
This seems like a new take on the opening scene of The Last of Us Part II, in which Joel recounts the violent events of the first game’s finale to his brother Tommy. He finishes his story with the same line: “I saved her.” So it seems Joel might be confessing his murder of the Fireflies to someone other than family in the show when it premieres on Max in 2025. The first season played things pretty close to the original, but it did make some big changes to Bill and Frank’s relationship, and added entirely new characters of its own, like Melanie Lynskey’s Kathleen.
Given that HBO plans to cover the events of Part II across multiple seasons of the show, it wouldn’t be surprising if it used all that extra time to riff on more plot points and character threads. The first season put a big focus on Joel’s anxiety, something which the games only hinted at, so the sad dad finally getting professional help seems in line with how the show’s been handling that side of him.
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will lead season two, but HBO has announced several new cast members that will play characters from The Last of Us Part II. Most notably, Kaitlyn Dever will play Abby, the co-protagonist of the sequel.
We might have to wait a while to see it, but tonight HBO gave us our first good look at The Last of Us‘ return in action, and it looks like we’re in for a world of hurt.
Released as part of an extended tease of what’s coming in the next year during House of the Dragon‘s season finale tonight (stay tuned for our recap tomorrow!) the new footage is short, but offers some interesting hints at what the sophomore season will adapt from the award-winning Naughty Dog sequel.
The footage offers not just new glimpses of what Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey’s Joel and Ellie are up to (having a bad time, for the most part), but glimpses at new and returning major characters, including Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna), what appears to be our first glimpses at Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), Dina (Isabela Merced), and Jeffrey Wright reprising his role as Isaac from the game. We also get our first glimpse at Catharine O’Hara’s mysterious new figure, who asks Joel an intriguing question, seemingly about Ellie: “Did you hurt her?”
Check out the full HBO/Max tease below, which also includes new footage from The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, It: Welcome to Derry, and our first actual look at the next Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, in action.
Cinema Audio Society, which honors outstanding sound mixing in film and television, also handed out awards in the television categories to The Last of Us for best one-hour series and The Bear for best half-hour series.
In its animated feature competition, CAS awarded the trophy to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Other nominees included the teams behind Elemental, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, The Boy and the Heron and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. As for feature documentaries, 32 Sounds took home the award, beating out American Symphony, Little Richard: I Am Everything, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.
Several mixers earned multiple nominations, including Kevin O’Connell (Barbie, Oppenheimer), Doc Kane (Mutant Mayhem, Super Mario Bros.) Mark Mangini (Mutant Mayhem, 32 Sounds) and Michael Semanick (Across the Spider-Verse, Mutant Mayhem).
Television category contenders included The Crown, The Last of Us, Succession, Ted Lasso and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
“On behalf of the Cinema Audio Society, I extend heartfelt congratulations to all the winners of the 60th Annual CAS Awards,” CAS president Peter Kurland said. “As we mark this significant milestone, reflecting on 60 years of the CAS, it’s truly remarkable to witness the evolution of sound in cinema. While much has changed over time, one constant remains—the remarkable talent of these artists, whose dedication continues to enrich the cinematic experience for audiences worldwide. We applaud your exceptional achievements and invaluable contributions to the art of sound.”
See the full winners list below.
MOTION PICTURES – LIVE ACTION
Barbie
Production Mixer – Nina Rice Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin O’Connell CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Ai-Ling Lee CAS Scoring Mixer – Peter Cobbin Scoring Mixer – Kirsty Whalley ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS Foley Mixer – Kevin Schultz
Ferrari
Production Mixer – Lee Orloff CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Andy Nelson CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Lamberti Re-Recording Mixer – Luke Schwarzweller CAS Scoring Mixer – Andrew Dudman ADR Mixer – Matthew Wood Foley Mixer – Giorgi Lekishvili
Killers of the Flower Moon
Production Mixer – Mark Ulano CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Fleischman CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Eugene Gearty Foley Mixer – George A. Lara CAS
Maestro
Production Mixer – Steven A. Morrow CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Ozanich Re-Recording Mixer – Dean A. Zupancic Scoring Mixer – Nick Baxter ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS Foley Mixer – Walter Spencer
Oppenheimer (WINNER)
Production Mixer – Willie D. Burton CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Gary A. Rizzo CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin O’Connell CAS Scoring Mixer – Chris Fogel CAS Foley Mixer – Tavish Grade Foley Mixer – Jack Cucci Foley Mixer – Mikel Parraga-Wills
MOTION PICTURES – ANIMATED
Elemental
Original Dialogue Mixer – Vince Caro CAS Original Dialogue Mixer – Paul McGrath CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Stephen Urata Re-Recording Mixer – Ren Klyce Scoring Mixer – Thomas Vicari CAS Foley Mixer – Scott Curtis
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (WINNER)
Original Dialogue Mixer – Brian Smith Original Dialogue Mixer – Aaron Hasson Original Dialogue Mixer – Howard London CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Michael Semanick Re-Recording Mixer – Juan Peralta Scoring Mixer – Sam Okell Foley Mixer – Randy K. Singer CAS
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Original Dialogue Mixer – Doc Kane CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Michael Semanick Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Mangini Scoring Mixer – Trent Reznor Scoring Mixer – Atticus Ross ADR Mixer – Chris Cirino Foley Mixer – Chelsea Body
The Boy and the Heron
Original Dialogue & Re-Recording Mixer – Kôji Kasamatsu
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Original Dialogue Mixer – Carlos Sotolongo CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Pete Horner Re-Recording Mixer – Juan Peralta Scoring Mixer – Casey Stone CAS ADR Mixer – Doc Kane CAS Foley Mixer – Richard Durante
MOTION PICTURES – DOCUMENTARY
32 Sounds (WINNER)
Production Mixer – Laura Cunningham Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Mangini Scoring Mixer – Ben Greenberg ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS Foley Mixer – Blake Collins CAS
American Symphony
Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Paul Re-Recording Mixer – Tristan Baylis Foley Mixer – Ryan Collison
Little Richard: I Am Everything
Re-Recording Mixer – Tom Paul
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Re-Recording Mixer – Skip Lievsay CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Paul Urmson Re-Recording Mixer – Joel Dougherty Scoring Mixer – John Michael Caldwell Foley Mixer – Micah Blaichman
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour
Production Mixer – Jacob Farron Smith CAS Re-Recording Mixer – John Ross CAS Re-Recording Mixer – David Payne Re-Recording Mixer – Christopher Rowe
NON-THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES OR LIMITED SERIES
All the Light We Cannot See: Episode 4
Production Mixer – Balazs Varga Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Paterson Re-Recording Mixer – Craig Henighan CAS Scoring Mixer – Nick Wollage ADR Mixer – Bobby Johanson CAS Foley Mixer – Peter Persaud CAS
Beef: Episode 9 “The Great Fabricator“
Production Mixer – Sean O’Malley CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Penny Harold CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Andrew Garrett Lange CAS Foley Mixer – Andrey Starikovskiy
Black Mirror: Season 6, Episode 3 “Beyond The Sea“
Production Mixer – Richard Miller Re-Recording Mixer – James Ridgway Scoring Mixer – Daniel Kresco ADR Mixer – James Hyde Foley Mixer – Adam Mendez CAS
Daisy Jones & The Six: Episode 10 “Track 10: Rock n’ Roll Suicide“
Production Mixer – Chris Welcker Re-Recording Mixer – Lindsey Alvarez CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Mathew Waters CAS Scoring Mixer – Mike Poole ADR Mixer – Chris Navarro CAS Foley Mixer – James B. Howe
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story(WINNER)
Production Mixer – Richard Bullock CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Solis Scoring Mixer – Phil McGowan CAS ADR Mixer – Brian Magrum CAS Foley Mixer – Erika Koski CAS
TELEVISION SERIES – ONE HOUR
Succession: Season 4, Episode 3 “Connor’s Wedding“
Production Mixer – Ken Ishii CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Andy Kris Re-Recording Mixer – Nicholas Renbeck Scoring Mixer – Thomas Vicari CAS ADR Mixer – Mark DeSimone CAS Foley Mixer – Micah Blaichman
Ted Lasso: Season 3, Episode 12 “So Long, Farewell“
Production Mixer – David Lascelles CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Ryan Kennedy Re-Recording Mixer – Sean Byrne CAS Foley Mixer – Jordan McClain
The Crown: Season 5, Episode 8 “Gunpowder“
Production Mixer – Chris Ashworth Re-Recording Mixer – Stuart Hilliker CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Lee Walpole Re-Recording Mixer – Martin Jensen ADR Mixer – Ben Tisdall Foley Mixer – Anna Wright
The Last Of Us: Season 1, Episode 1 “When You’re Lost In The Darkness” (WINNER)
Production Mixer – Michael Playfair CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Marc Fishman CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Kevin Roache CAS Foley Mixer – Randy Wilson
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 5, Episode 6 “The Testi-Roastial“
Production Mixer – Mathew Price CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Ron Bochar CAS Scoring Mixer – Stewart Lerman Foley Mixer – George A. Lara CAS
TELEVISION SERIES – HALF HOUR
Barry: Season 4, Episode 8 “Wow”
Production Mixer – Scott Harber CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Elmo Ponsdomenech CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Teddy Salas Scoring Mixer – David Wingo ADR Mixer – Aaron Hasson Foley Mixer – Darrin Mann
Only Murders in the Building: Season 3, Episode 8 “Sitzprobe“
Production Mixer – Joseph White Jr. CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Mathew Waters CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Lindsey Alvarez CAS Song Mixer – Derik Lee Scoring Mixer – Alan DeMoss ProTools Playback Mixer – Derek Pacuk Foley Mixer – Erika Koski CAS
The Bear: Season 2, Episode 7 “Forks” (WINNER)
Production Mixer – Scott D. Smith CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Steve “Major” Giammaria CAS ADR Mixer – Patrick Christensen Foley Mixer – Ryan Collison
The Mandalorian: Season 3, Episode 8 “The Return”
Production Mixer – Shawn Holden Re-Recording Mixer – Scott R. Lewis CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Tony Villaflor Scoring Mixer – Chris Fogel CAS ADR Mixer – Aaron Hasson Foley Mixer – Scott Curtis
What We Do in the Shadows: Season 5, Episode 5 “Local News“
Production Mixer – Rob Beal CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Samuel Ejnes CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Diego Gat CAS Foley Mixer – Stacey Michaels CAS
TELEVISION NON-FICTION, VARIETY or MUSIC – SERIES or SPECIALS
100 Foot Wave: Season 2, Episode 5 “Lost at Sea” (WINNER)
Re-Recording Mixer – Keith Hodne
Bono & The Edge: “A Sort of Homecoming With Dave Letterman“
Production Mixer – Karl Merren Re-Recording Mixer – Brian Riordan CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Phil DeTolve CAS Scoring Mixer – Jacknife Lee
Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 5, Episode 9 “Over The Limit“
Production Mixer – Doug Dredger Re-Recording Mixer – Steve Speed CAS Re-Recording Mixer – Nick Fry CAS
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert: Season 8, Episode 31 “John Oliver; Broadway Cast of ‘The Lion King‘”
Production Mixer – Pierre de Laforcade FoH Mixer -Tom Herrmann Monitor Mixer – Al Bonomo Music Mixer – Harvey Goldberg
Welcome to Wrexham: Season 2, Episode 6 “Ballers“
Re-Recording Mixer – Mark Jensen CAS
STUDENT RECOGNITION AWARD FINALISTS
Allison Blum, Savannah College of Art and Design
Shubhi Sahni, University of Southern California
Doris (Yushu) Shen, University of Southern California (WINNER)
Eunseo (Bella) So, Savannah College of Art and Design
2020’s The Last of Us Part II is a revenge story built around two sides: that of Ellie (as played in the show by Bella Ramsey) and newcomer Abby (Kaitlyn Dever). Both women have their own respective supporting casts, and the HBO adaptation has mainly cast the folks in Ellie’s social circle like Dina and Jesse.
Thanks, Last of Us. Thanks a Lot. | The Last of Us Episode 7 Review
According to Variety, HBO’s managed to lock down four actors who’ll play the people in Abby’s friend group. Top Gun: Maverick’s Danny Ramirez will play Manny, described as a“loyal soldier whose sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most.” Spencer Lord (Riverdale) is Owen, Abby’s ex who’s “condemned to fight an enemy he refuses to hate.”
Rounding out the quartet are Ariela Barer (Runaways) as young doctor Mel and Tati Gabrielle (Mortal Kombat II) as Nora, a fellow medic “struggling to come to terms with the sins of her past.” In the game, Ellie travels across Seattle to get revenge on all four characters, and eventually Abby. Even with whatever changes are in store, that’ll likely remain the same with the show; it’ll just also flesh out those characters, similar to what it’s already done with Bill. At the moment, there’s two other people on Abby’s “side” is casting is still secret: Yara and Lev, a pair of siblings she meets in her travels.
The Last of Us season two is expected to drop on HBO sometime in 2025.
“I am your cool, slutty daddy,” The Last of Usstar Pedro Pascal famously said on the red carpet for HBO’s latest blockbuster series, based on the postapocalyptic video game. Weeks later, the network renewed The Last of Us for a second season. Is there a correlation between Pascal thirst and a renewal? Maybe so! The first season, which aired its harrowing finale last March,was largely a faithful adaptation of the original game, with a few notable exceptions, and ended in the same spot as the game. But HBO is like a hungry zombie wanting more, more, more! The show’s co-creators, Craig Mazin (Chernobyl) and Neil Druckmann (co-president of Naughty Dog, the video-game development company behind TLOU), haven’t been super-forthcoming with details about Joel (Pascal) and Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) televisual fates in the months following its official renewal. Still, it seems like high time we compiled everything we do know about the upcoming second season, and you won’t even have to threaten us with a switchblade to get the info.
Even with all the cool, slutty daddy thirst, record viewership may be the main reason. Episode one has surpassed 22 million viewers domestically, up nearly five times from its January 2023 premiere audience. The second episode did even better by about a million viewers, tallying an audience of 5.7 million across HBO Max and linear telecast platforms, a 22 percent jump. It was the largest week-two audience growth for any HBO Original drama series in the history of the network. The critical darling tells the story of smuggler Joel (Pascal) who must deliver an important child (played by Bella Ramsey, not Grogu) across America after a fungal outbreak created a horde of cannibalistic zombie-esque people-creatures. Gabriel Luna, Anna Torv, Nico Parker, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Melanie Lynskey, and Storm Reid also star.
Kaitlyn Dever of Booksmart fame joins the series as one of several prominent new characters, Deadline reported on January 9. She plays Abby, a soldier seeking vengeance on those who harmed her loved ones. “Our casting process for season two has been identical to season one: We look for world-class actors who embody the souls of the characters in the source material,” said Mazin and Druckmann in a statement. On January 10, Variety confirmed Young Mazino of Beef and SZA music-video fame will play Jesse, “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else’s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.” “Young is one of those rare actors who is immediately undeniable the moment you see him,” the co-creators said. They’re talking about his face card.
Another round of casting announcements dropped on March 1. Per Variety, Top Gun’s Danny Ramirez will be taking on another military role and star as Manny, a loyal soldier whose “sunny outlook belies the pain of old wounds and a fear that he will fail his friends when they need him most.” Ariela Barer will play a young doctor named Mel whose commitment to saving lives is challenged by “the realities of war and tribalism,” Tati Gabrielle will play a military medic named Nora struggling with past “sins,” and Spencer Lord will play a “gentle soul” named Owen who is “trapped in a warrior’s body, condemned to fight an enemy he refuses to hate.” Truly, none of these characters can catch a break.
Yes and no. The Last of Us: Part II is an even more expansive game than the first, so the story of the second game will be split over multiple seasons. How many? There’s no way to know. When pressed on how many seasons the game adaptation will take, Mazin and Druckmann went cold. “You have noted correctly that we will not say how many,” Mazin told GQ. “But more than one is factually correct.” The second game (SPOILER ALERT) largely takes place four years after the original game, which gives quite a bit of leeway if Mazin and Druckmann want to build that story out. Plus fans of the game know something seismic happens relatively early on in the second game’s plot — the kind of thing that feels like a season ender, rather than a season opener. At this point, it seems like the only thing we know is what we don’t know.
From a bird’s-eye view, Mazin and Druckmann seem pretty happy with the first season of the show and ready to give another installment along those same lines. “Our goal remains exactly what it was for the first season, which is to deliver a show that makes fans happy,” Mazin said to GQ. Still, the creators acknowledged some things season two could do to improve on the first. The biggest has to do not with plot but with setting. Some, including Stephen King, have noted that Joel and Ellie’s cross-country road trip doesn’t really feel … cross-country at times. That’s partially due to the fact that the entire first season was filmed in Canada. “My goal is to do better next season, now that we’ve learned some lessons,” Mazin said in a press conference, according to TV Line. “Every now and then [in season one] you get a little bit of an ‘Oh, it’s Canada,’ when we don’t want it to be Canada.”
Oh, you’re so impatient. Players of the game were forced to wait seven full years between the first and second installments to learn the fates of Joel and Ellie, but it seems unlikely that TV watchers will have to wait anywhere near that long. The GQ interviewer references audiences needing to wait “two years” to find out the fate of the main characters, which neither creator disputes. Just for context, season one began filming in July 2021 and arrived on HBO last January. If they replicate that timeline, we can expect season two in fall 2024 at the earliest. Still, Druckmann noted to GQ that, with this season, “I find that the process is easier.” So maybe they’ll speed it up a little? The Hollywood Reporter has reported thatthe show is preparing to begin production in the spring, with a likely 2025 premiere. As long as nobody has to wait seven years again, we’ll take what we can get.
Nick Offerman won the prize for best supporting performance in a new scripted series at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards thanks to his role as the survivalist Bill in HBO’s “The Last of Us.” During his acceptance speech, Offerman took aim at some of the show’s toxic fans who spammed him with homophobic comments after his episode, “Long, Long Time,” first aired due to it centering a gay love story.
“Thank you so much. I’m astonished to be in this category, which is bananas,” Offerman said when he took the stage. “Thanks to HBO for having the guts to participate in this storytelling tradition that is truly independent. Stories with guts that when homophobic hate comes my way and says, ‘Why did you have to make it a gay story?’ We say, ‘Because you ask questions like that. It’s not a gay story it’s a love story, you asshole!”
Offerman’s comment earned a huge applause from the Spirit Awards audience. His performance as Bill in “The Last of Us” also earned him an Emmy Award for best guest actor in a drama series earlier this year.
Offerman starred opposite Murray Bartlett in the episode “Long, Long Time,” which took a break from the main storyline of “The Last of Us” to spotlight the love story over 20 years between two men as the world descends into chaos around them amid an escalating zombie virus. The episode earned near universal acclaim from critics, but that didn’t stop homophobic trolls from taking issue with the show for spotlighting a gay romance.
“The Last of Us” has begun production on Season 2 with series stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. It’s not likely that either Offerman or Bartlett will return, although never say never. New cast members for Season 2 include Isabela Merced as Dina, Young Mazino as Jesse and Kaitlyn Dever as Abby. Comedy icon and “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara is also joining the series.
The first season of “The Last of Us” is now available to stream on Max.
Isabela Merced was already one of the industry’s most sought-after young actors, and then she went on an unparalleled casting streak that includes the likes of Madame Web, Alien: Romulus, Superman: Legacy and The Last of Us season two. She also has her second John Green adaptation, Turtles All the Way Down, releasing this spring, and it happens to be the performance she’s most proud of to date.
On Feb. 14, Merced returns to the big screen in SJ Clarkson’s Madame Web, as her character, Anya Corazon, is one of three future Spider-Women that Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) must protect from baddie Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) and his premonition that they’re all responsible for his eventual death. Anya’s Spider-Woman alter ego is named Araña, and due to Cassie’s clairvoyant visions, Merced, along with Johnson, Sydney Sweeney and Celeste O’Connor, had to perform multiple different versions of scenes in order to account for the potential future and reality of each sequence.
Fortunately, Clarkson approached this tangled web with subtlety and efficiency.
“[Clarkson] was very smart about not making us too conscious or aware that it was another version of the same scene,” Merced tells The Hollywood Reporter. “We could just focus on the work and not mimic the same things we did before.”
Last July, just three days before the SAG-AFTRA strike, Merced joined James Gunn’s forthcoming DCU reboot as Hawkgirl in Superman: Legacy, the first film to kick off the revamped cinematic universe. Needless to say, Merced is ecstatic about the entire enterprise, and her screen test with her fellow co-stars gave her a proper sneak peek of what to expect when the superhero pic begins production in March.
“I was directed by [Gunn] during the [screen] test for [Superman: Legacy], because I auditioned for this. I got to do [the screen test] with my other castmates, and that was really cool. It felt very professional; it was almost like a legitimate shooting day,” Merced says. “So I’ve already learned so much about his process, and this man … has the best of the best working for him.”
The Cleveland native also signed onto The Last of Us season two as Dina. She’s another teenage inhabitant of Maria (Rutina Wesley) and Tommy Miller’s (Gabriel Luna) Jackson, Wyoming community, and she soon becomes close with Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Once Merced heard that series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann were interested in meeting with her, she binge-played The Last of Us Part II in record time to be thoroughly prepared.
“I had already watched the show, and so I went to my friend’s house and I played [The Last of Us Part II] all in one weekend on the PS5. It was amazing. It did 25 hours of gameplay,” Merced shares. “It was wild, but so much fun. So I really liked the second game, but I haven’t played the first game yet.”
Merced is also starring alongside Cailee Spaeny in Fede Álvarez’s upcoming Alien: Romulus, which takes place between Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) and James Cameron’s Aliens (1986). During a recent round of reshoots, Merced and some nearby cast/crew got to watch a significant chunk of the film on Álvarez’s iPad, and one scene in particular prompted everyone but Merced to look away in horror.
“There’s a scene that I’m in, and they all had to turn away. Not one person stayed looking at that iPad because it was so disgusting,” Merced reveals. “And I was watching it like this … (Merced pretends to hold an iPad with a mesmerized look on her face.) I was so excited.”
Merced also starred in 2018’s Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and with Sicario 3 currently gaining steam, she would “absolutely” love to reprise her role as Isabel Reyes, even if it’s just for one scene with Benicio Del Toro. Soldado ends with Isabel thinking Del Toro’s Alejandro Gillick has been shot to death, before eventually being whisked away to Witness Protection by Josh Brolin’s Matt Graver.
Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Merced also discusses the first time she bonded with her Madame Web co-stars, as well as the pros and cons of her Araña costume.
So there’s usually a point where co-stars first bond with each other. Fight scenes are a common answer. Was dancing to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” on top of a diner table that moment for the three of you (Merced, Sweeney, O’Connor) on Madame Web?
(Laughs.) The first moment of bonding was two weeks into it. It was my birthday, so I invited everybody [to a party]. I didn’t really expect them all to come. I don’t like to make a big deal on my birthday. I don’t really like my own birthday. I love other people’s birthdays, though. But they all showed up and it was amazing. There was an accordion player who my mom first saw on the street. There was brunch, but they also brought snacks, treats, cookies, everything. So [my co-stars] didn’t have to be there, but they showed up for me and I thought that was really sweet.
Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney) in Columbia Pictures’ Madame Web.
Sony Pictures
My second wrong guess would’ve been everyone’s first day in Spider costumes. How’d your Araña costume treat you?
Oh, it was like a glove. Honestly, it fit every curve of my body, perfectly. So it was quite comfortable. But when you put the harness on, you then put layers underneath it to protect your skin from the harness and then [more layers] over the harness to smooth it out. So that’s when it gets really tight. You train all these months for certain actions and moves that you’ve prepared, but once you put on the costume and the harness, it’s suddenly like trying to run underwater. So it’s quite hard to do the same things in the costume and harness.
For what it’s worth, I hear that bird-related superhero costumes are much more comfortable.
(Laughs.) You know what? From my experience with that production, it has been …
The three of you received a CPR lesson from Dakota Johnson’s character in a seedy motel room. If there was an emergency situation, would you trust yourself to deploy it?
Absolutely not! I can hold a beat. I can hold a rhythm. (Merced proceeds to sing the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive,” as CPR classes recommend performing chest compressions to the song’s tempo.) But I can’t guarantee that that person will be staying alive. Yeah, no promises there. (Laughs.) Don’t call on me, please.
You had to shoot the potential future that Cassie (Johnson) glimpses, but then you also had to shoot what actually happens due to her interference. Did things get pretty complicated on the day as you filmed multiple versions of many different scenes?
I will give credit to SJ Clarkson, the director. In the train sequence where we all get murdered for the fourth time or something, there were variations. Once we got up to the part where [Anya] is picked up and thrown, we had to do about three variations before that. So SJ would give very subtle notes and act like it’s still the same scene, but it was really another version of the same scene. Again, she was very subtle about it. So once we finished, I was like, “Oh, did we get it?” And she was like, “Yeah, we got four different versions. I’m going to edit it together later.” So she was very smart about not making us too conscious or aware that it was another version of the same scene. We could just focus on the work and not mimic the same things we did before.
You told me a few years ago that you hoped to avoid more sassy, angsty teenagers if at all possible, but Anya has a very good reason for being that way at first. Her immigration-related backstory is quite heartbreaking, and I couldn’t help but think about it through today’s lens. Did her backstory hit you pretty hard as well?
Yeah, the whole sassy, angsty teen thing, I probably said that I didn’t like it because I was that sort of character in real life at the time. I’m only 22 now, but I understand it more as I get older. I look back at my journal entries from when I was that age and I get it. The world seems so much scarier. You feel so much more vulnerable and self-conscious, and that’s what I love about understanding Anya. Yes, you have the surface-level facts about her life that are quite saddening and you can imagine she feels isolated, but then you peel it back further to the immigrant mentality. She is smart, but that’s because she has to be. She is independent, but that’s because she has to be. It doesn’t mean she wants to be. So I loved getting to know the softer side of her and taking it to something that’s more than just a sassy, angsty teen.
Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney) and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor) in Columbia Pictures’ Madame Web
Sony Pictures
You’re half-Peruvian, and similar to Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Peru is a key part of this story as well. Your character even says the name of the country when Cassie tells everyone that she has to go there. Did they rewrite that scene just so you could have that meta reference to your own ancestry?
I wish I knew the answer to that question so I could give you a solid answer. I think it’s the law of attraction, honestly. I also wish I had that much control that I could be like, “Oh, it says Peru? I’m going to be in that movie.” So I think it’s just the law of attraction, but I love Peru. Apparently, I’m attracting projects that mention it, but that was an added line: “You have to go to Peru.” That was something they just added in there on the day, but I don’t think SJ was thinking that much about it. When you’re directing something, you’re just so invested in the story that you’re not aware of these things. So it’s just a really cool thing that I hope keeps happening. I even have some projects in mind that are centered in Peru, so I hope that I get to produce them at some point.
You’ve worked with the Wahlberg family a few times, and given that you shot Madame Web in Boston, did Mark offer you a list of dinner recs and all that?
I got a list from him a long time ago, and I actually referred to that list, but some of the restaurants were closed down because of the pandemic. I got the list before the pandemic. But I didn’t reach out to him. I don’t really reach out. I’m a terrible friend. I’m also a terrible daughter, especially when I’m working. I’m great when I’m not working, but when I’m working, I’m bad at keeping in touch with people. I just get so invested in my own head.
Benicio Del Toro and Isabela Merced in Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Richard Foreman, Jr.
So how was your Sicario: Day of the Soldado reunion with Benicio Del Toro not too long ago?
Oh, it was lovely. I love that man. I gave him the biggest hug and he was so sweet to me. He’s always been really sweet to me, and I admire him so much. I was just happy to see that he’s doing well.
We’ve talked before about Soldado and Josh Brolin’s tears …
(Laughs.)
As much as I love that movie, I’ve always wished that Benicio’s character reunited with your character at the very end just to relieve some of the trauma she’d endured. However, it’s still possible as Sicario 3 is gaining momentum. I know you’re busy these days, but is that a phone call you’d like to receive, even if it’s just one reunion scene?
Absolutely. I would be very open to that. We spoke about it, and obviously things change, but I think we spoke about Isabel Reyes going into the Witness Protection Program. [Writer’s Note: Brolin’s character defied his own orders and took Reyes to the U.S. to place her in WITSEC.] So I don’t know how she would be involved in another Sicario storyline unless they went out of their way to make that happen, but of course, I would love to be a part of [Sicario 3]. Soldado is still, to date, one of my favorite movies I’ve ever done, and it was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had. It was insane.
Well, I referenced it earlier, but belated congratulations on being employed by James Gunn.
Yeah, it’s awesome! (Laughs.)
You once said that you respond the most to roles that bring out a new side of yourself, and James has always been highly skilled at doing that for his actors. So is Hawkgirl going to potentially show a new side of you?
James Gunn is so creative and he has such a unique style, and whatever he touches, he always adds his own flair to it. And for that reason, I’m very excited. I was directed by him during the [screen] test for this, because I auditioned for this. I got to do [the screen test] with my other castmates, and that was really cool. It felt very professional; it was almost like a legitimate shooting day. So I’ve already learned so much about his process, and this man has such a solid team. He has the best of the best working for him, and they’ve worked together for so long that it’s only up to me to mess it up. So I hope that I can understand and take notes and continue training and just be healthy throughout it all. Then I’ll be able to give the fans the performance they deserve.
(L-R) Bella Ramsey and Isabela Merced attend ELLE’s 2023 Women in Hollywood Celebration on Dec. 5.
Phillip Faraone/Getty Images
It’s fitting that you also joined The Last of Us, because you and Pedro Pascal are both landing every role there is to land in this town. Have you been preparing for Dina and Hawkgirl at the same time, basically?
Absolutely. I’m also working on a script that I’m trying to write, and I have to promote Turtles All the Way Down, which is coming out in the spring. But I’m so excited to meet Pedro. I met Bella Ramsey and [co-creator] Craig Mazin already. I met basically the whole Last of Us team, except for Pedro. I know Kaitlyn [Dever] from Rosaline, but I saw her in Vancouver recently. So I think this is going to be a really wonderful experience. They won all those Emmys for a reason, and it’s a really well-run, well-oiled machine. Craig is just a genius, and I really admire him for the short time I’ve known him.
Have you been playing the Last of Us Part II game on the TV that Adria Arjona gave you?
(Laughs.) Okay, I have a few things to say about that. Adria is one of the most giving people I’ve ever met. This woman gives her things away like it’s nothing, and it’s such a good quality to have. I would love to have that quality, because she doesn’t give too much importance to things. She values what’s actually valuable. So I needed a TV, because I had just bought a new apartment, and she ended up giving me her TV that she didn’t need. It’s massive. It’s such a nice TV, and it’s in my living room right now.
But TheLast of Us prep has not been done in my house. I was in a relationship where my ex had a console, and I would play video games until 4:00 am every night. So I have a very unhealthy obsession with video games, and I told myself I wouldn’t get a PS5. But when I heard this ominous call about how the [Last of Us] creators wanted to meet with me, I was like, “Okay, I have to play the game first.” I had already watched the show, and so I went to my friend’s house and I played it all in one weekend on the PS5. It was amazing. It did 25 hours of gameplay. It was wild, but so much fun. So I really liked the second game, but I haven’t played the first game yet. Only the second.
Your list of conquests continues with Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus later this summer. Is it basically a two-hander between you and Cailee Spaeny?
It ends up being a little bit complicated, obviously, as all Alien movies do, however, yeah, you’ll see us together at times. When we were doing reshoots, Fede Álvarez gave me the iPad where he watches playback, and he had the movie pulled up. So I told him I wanted to see parts of it, and he showed it to me. I was the one holding the iPad, and there were ten people around me watching it on the iPad. So there’s a scene that I’m in, and they all had to turn away. Not one person stayed looking at that iPad because it was so disgusting. And I was watching it like this … (Merced pretends to hold an iPad with a mesmerized look on her face.) I was so excited. (Laughs.) I love sci-fi, I do. So he let me watch half the movie on the iPad. I said [to Fede], “If the iPad is heavy, I can carry it for you. I can hold it.” (Laughs.) So I’m really, really excited for that one. Again, I’m lucky enough to be a part of these projects with the best of the best. I can’t believe it. I’m so in shock, and I don’t know when I’m going to wake up.
Lastly, you touched on it earlier, but your second John Green adaptation, Turtles All the Way Down, releases this spring. I was shocked to read this, but was that really the first time you were proud of your acting? Or were you just exaggerating?
I actually don’t think I was. To be honest, there’s a lot of components about movies that are out of your control. For example, you do 45 takes of something, and it’s edited together in a certain way where you’re like, “I don’t think these moods match from one line to the other. I don’t think there was a proper escalation.” So it could be things like that, and when I watch my movies for the first time, I do find myself grabbing onto my seat and clenching my jaw. So I do have a hard time watching myself, but Turtles All the Way Down, I don’t know if it’s personal growth or working on my self-worth, but I didn’t clench up at all while watching it. I felt at ease watching it, and maybe that’s because I knew how much work I put into it and how I felt after each shooting day. So I do feel really proud of myself for that.
Comedy legend Catherine O’Hara has been cast in the second season of The Last of Us. The Schitt’s Creek star will join HBO’s dystopian drama in an undisclosed role. O’Hara joins fellow season two cast members, which includes Kaitlyn Dever (Booksmart) as Abby, Isabela Merced (Madame Web) as Dina, and Young Mazino (Beef) as Jesse.
While O’Hara’s role is still under wraps, it hasn’t stopped internet nerds from wildly speculating about who she is playing. The current frontrunner is the Prophet, the leader of the Seraphites. The Seraphites are a fanatical religious cult that believes that the Cordyceps outbreak was God punishing humanity for their sins. The group separates itself into a self-sustaining community that is frequently at odds with FEDRA and the Washington Liberation Front militia (WLF). While the Prophet is never seen in the game, she is memorialized in murals and signs across the Pacific Northwest.
(image: Naughty Dog)
Of course, this is all wild speculation. O’Hara could be playing a character from the game, or she could be originating a role like Melanie Lynskey did in season one. The series featured terrific guest stars in its first season, including Anna Torv, Murray Bartlett, Nick Offerman, Lynskey, Ashley Johnson, Troy Baker, and Storm Reid. The Last of Us won 8 Creative Arts Emmys, with Offerman and Reid winning for best guest actor and actress in a drama series, respectively.
If the internet had its way, O’Hara would simply be reprising her role as Moira Rose from Schitt’s Creek. And as much as we would all love to see that happen, it’s not going to. But O’Hara will see a familiar face on set. As she told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, her son is a set dresser on the series.
Season two starts production in the spring, with a release date set for sometime in 2025.
Anyone who was on the internet around the release of The Last of Us Part II knows it was a bad time. But while we, as fans and writers, saw the vitriolic backlash unfold in real-time, it was far worse for the creative team who was directly targeted by it. Laura Bailey, who played the secret second protagonist Abby, has opened up about her experience with harassment during the game’s release cycle, and how some disgruntled fans threatened her son, who was two years old at the time, because they didn’t like her character.
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If you haven’t played The Last of Us Part II, Abby kills Joel, the protagonist of the first game, as part of a years-long revenge plot for the death of her father. A subset of fans famously lashed out about this, viewing it as a “betrayal” of sorts by developer Naughty Dog. This backlash extended to the cast of the game, including Bailey. In the documentary Grounded II: The Making of The Last of Us Part II that premiered on February 2, Bailey tearfully spoke about death threats that she received.
Some of these messages were passed along to proper channels to ensure that Bailey wasn’t in any immediate danger, and among them were threats directed at her son, who was born during Part II’s development. In a segment of the documentary focused on the backlash surrounding leaked cutscenes ahead of launch, Bailey says this taught her to “keep a distance” from the public.
Bailey talked publicly about the online abuse she received around the launch of The Last of Us Part II back in 2020, and even posted screenshots of some of what was sent her way. This included one message that was directed at her son and parents. This level of harassment has become so commonplace in the video game industry, and public-facing women in the space are most often the target. Just earlier this year, Spider-Man 2 face model Stephanie Tyler Jones had to speak out against people stalking her by leaving voicemails at her day job and making her feel “unsafe.”
Seeing how people treated Bailey for playing a character she didn’t write naturally makes me worry about how The Last of Us fans will react to Kaitlyn Dever, who will play Abby in the HBO Max live-action adaptation, once the golf club comes down. A lot of people have jokingly said she needs to get off social media now, but looking at how awful the response was to Bailey, maybe it’s worthwhile advice.
The Grounded II documentary presents a behind-the-scenes look at The Last of Us Part II’s development and includes a soft confirmation that Naughty Dog has a concept in mind for a third game.
Two weeks ago, news broke that actor Kaitlyn Dever was joining the cast for the second season of HBO’s The Last Of Us TV series—which is still floating along without a release date, with “some time in 2025” the best anybody in TV land can guess. But despite that mild ambiguity, Dever’s casting kicked off a small firestorm of speculation, because it was revealed that she’d be playing a character named Abby Anderson when she joined the Emmy-winning video-game adaptation’s second season—which means The Last Of Us is almost certainly diving whole hog into the story of 2020’s The Last Of Us Part II. And that means things are about to get … messy.
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[Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for 2020 video gameThe Last Of Us Part II—and, likely, for at least some of the plot elements of the still-filming second season of HBO’s The Last Of UsTV show.]
Because while the critical consensus on Part II has mostly calmed down in the four years since its release—give or take some moderate consternation lately at the fact that Sony has already rolled out a “remastered” version of the hardly retro game, out last week–the game was something of a lightning rod when it first came out. Some of that wasn’t developer Naughty Dog’s fault. (A high-profile leak from the game’s development, showcasing several cutscenes and character models, fired up the kinds of chuds who get angry when female video-game characters aren’t “feminine” enough, to pick one of the more vitriolic examples.) But some of it was in direct to response to the game’s big narrative swings, which were, depending on who you asked, either “bold” or “super-aggressive and kind of manipulative.”
Many of which, we have to assume, will now be inherited by its TV adaptation: Excepting its critically heralded third episode, Craig Mazin’s adaptation of the first game into the show’s first season was almost overwhelmingly faithful–down to the season’s final scene almost exactly mimicking both the dialogue, and the staging, of the game’s famous ending. With game series creative director Neil Druckmann on board for the second season, as he was for the first, it would be shocking to see the series diverge more than a few inches from established canon.
What does that all mean? A few things—all of which could make The Last Of Us’ second season a very weird run of TV.
The Pedro Pascal “issue”
Pedro Pascal, Bella RamsayPhoto: Liane Hentscher/HBO
Anyone hoping to avoid spoilers for either the game series, or the show’s next season, should hop off this train now, because there’s really no way to talk about either without addressing the fungus-encrusted elephant in the room: protagonist Joel Miller’s sudden death, an hour or so into The Last Of Us Part II.
Pedro Pascal, who plays Joel on the show, has, understandably, hedged a bit when asked about this plot element–because how could he not? (Nobody wants the HBO Spoiler Squad on their ass.) But The Last Of Us Part II really doesn’t function as a story without it: Joel’s sudden death, at the hands of a group of survivors who come to the almost ludicrously idyllic community where he and Ellie (Bella Ramsay) have been living out their post-apocalypse, is rooted in both the aftermath of the first game and the narrative obsessions of the second. Everything The Last Of Us Part II wants to say about humanity–and it wants to say a lot—grows out of that early moment of sudden, shocking brutality, one moment of horrifying trauma birthed directly from another.
This was controversial, to say the least, in the games, where Joel was a beloved character played by well-liked voice actor Troy Baker. Applying it to a rising/risen star like Pascal—who did so much work to build a beautiful, broken human out of some fairly stock parts with his performance as Joel in the show’s first season–might be even more disruptive. Pascal and Ramsay both came up through Game Of Thrones, of course, so neither is unfamiliar with being on a series that jettisoned its “star” at a critical early point. But seeing the show’s most marketable star go the way of Logan Roy one episode into its new season is still likely to leave fans a bit discombobulated.
The absolute brutality of Ellie Williams
Bella RamsayPhoto: Liane Hentscher/HBO
If the above paragraphs didn’t clue you in, The Last Of Us Part II is an aggressively grim game. Even its genuine moments of love or levity come with the unavoidable knowledge that something truly awful is right around the corner—and rarely in the form of something as simple as a rampaging fungus monster. That goes doubly true for the character of Ellie, who came of age in the first game/season—and who spends the second game having her last few shreds of innocence sliced off of her piece by piece.
And really, we’re looking forward to seeing what Ramsay, who was excellent in the first season, will do with this material, as Ellie becomes harder and harder, and harder and harder to root for, the further into her need for vengeance she descends. But it’s going to be a lot for audiences, even by the standards of HBO: We’ll be curious to see if the TV show stays true to the moment that would, in a less ugly narrative, be Ellie’s rock bottom—i.e., the confrontation with Mel, for game players—or if it’ll back away from quite that level of character-alienating horror. But either way, we’ll likely depart the show’s second season with very little idea of who, if anyone, we want to see getting what they want out of this broken and miserable world.
A question of perspective
Pedro Pascal, Bella RamsayPhoto: Liane Hentscher/HBO
There’s also a question of structure to be addressed here, requiring us to spoil The Last Of Us Part II’s other big twist: the fact that only about half of the game is played from Ellie’s perspective, with the game rewinding at a major turning point to show what its three violent days in Seattle have been like for Joel’s killer, Abby.
On the one hand, this might actually be easier for the TV show to handle than the game; one of The Last Of Us franchise’s big tricks is adapting techniques from film and media, where they’re less familiar, to the medium of games, and this kind of perspective flip is far closer to old hat for television. That being said, the parts of the game where you play as Abby constitute a huge portion of the game, introducing new characters, stories, motivations, and problems, all to drill in for players that she’s just as much a person, a “protagonist,” as Ellie herself. A 24-hour-long video game can take that kind of time to make its points—a nine-hour TV series, not so much. It’s key to Druckmann’s vision of The Last Of Us Part II that Abby feel as “real” to the player/viewer as Joel or Ellie did. Building that kind of identification, without feeling repetitive or digressive, is going to be a fascinating struggle for the show to handle in a fraction of the time.
Is there room for another “Long, Long Time”?
Nick Offerman, Murray BartlettPhoto: Liane Hentscher/HBO
As we noted above, the first season of The Last Of Us deviated from the game’s plot in only one serious regard—and was rewarded powerfully for it, with critics and viewers alike holding up that digression point, “Long, Long Time” as a series highlight. With Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett moving mountains to flesh out characters who were, in the game, an asshole and a corpse, respectively, the episode served as a necessary antidote to the grimness of the rest of the season, reminding viewers that there was still the possibility of life, even for “the last of us.”
Mazin, and writer Peter Hoar, could fit that material into the series in part because they were adapting a largely episodic narrative: The first Last Of Us plays out as a series of vignettes as much as it is a more cohesive story, and it was fairly simple to swap out the running and shooting of the game’s “Bill’s Town” segment for something with considerably more heart. Just as importantly, it demonstrated at least some justification for the entire show, dialing into quieter, more human moments, at a distance from Joel and Ellie’s story.
The Last Of Us Part II is a much tighter narrative ship, though, with a big chunk of its power coming from the way it buries you in first Ellie and then Abby’s head. And so it remains to be seen where Mazin and his team can find room for a bit of light to shine through. (Even if you zoom out of the Ellie-Abby conflict, the game’s background plot is about a brutal inter-clan war waged between military despots on the one hand and transphobic religious zealots on the other; there’s not a lot of room for gentler shading there.) We suspect that the Abby material will have to stand in for that kind of digression, but her story is so married and mirrored to Ellie’s that it’ll be difficult to get meaningful breathing room out of it.
All that being said: It’s worth stepping back and remembering that we’re talking about a TV show that hasn’t even been filmed at this point, let alone aired. Speculation can only go so far before it just becomes fortune-telling and just as useful. But The Last Of Us’ nature as an adaptation—and one especially beholden to its source material—invites these kinds of questions. The Last Of Us Part II landed like a bomb in 2020, detonating video-game discourse for months around it. We can only imagine what its adaptation to television will do when it arrives some time next year.
To all the baby girls out there (IYKYK), we’ve got news for you. Following its explosive premiere in January 2023, HBO’s adaptation of the award-winning PlayStation game “The Last Of Us” quickly solidified its status as one of the must-see shows of the year. After rave reviews and plenty of award nominations, it’s officially back for another season. Cue all the “Zaddy” memes of Pedro Pascal.
Set against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic America two decades after a mutant fungus wreaked havoc on civilisation, the series chronicles the journey of Joel (Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey). Joel’s mission? To smuggle Ellie out of a quarantine zone and, in doing so, potentially save humanity.
Fast forward a year from the show’s debut, and if that cliff-hanger ending left you still grappling for answers, you’re not alone. But fear not, because we’ve got the inside scoop on what Season 2 might have in store. Buckle up as we spill everything we know so far!
“The Last of Us” Season 2 Plot
Following the gripping ending of Season 1, Season 2 will explore the aftermath of that finale, with Joel, Ellie, and humanity’s fate hanging in the balance. The narrative will align with “The Last of Us Part II” game, which is set five years after the events of the first game, and focus on now-19-year-old Ellie living with Joel in Jackson, Wyoming. Season 2 promises to bring back the intense emotions and moral complexities of the game, but with a twist that deviates from the source material.
Showrunner Craig Mazin has assured fans that Season 2 will be both familiar and distinct from the game. Mazin has also noted that events of “Part II” will extend over more than one season of the series, providing ample time to delve into the intricate storyline.
“The Last of Us” Season 2 Cast
Who Will Play Abby?
Heading into Season 2, the big mystery on everyone’s mind was, “Who’s gonna be Abby?” Well, we finally have answers! Kaitlyn Dever, you know, the one from “Booksmart” and “Justified”, has snagged the role, and we can’t wati to see what she brings to the role.
Abby’s not just any character; she’s a big deal in “The Last of Us Part II”. No spoilers, but she’s a Firefly who crosses paths with Joel and Ellie early in the second game. According to HBO, Abby is no ordinary character; she’s a “skilled soldier” with a pretty straightforward view of the world.
Who Will Play Dina?
Isabella Merced, the talent behind “Dora” and the “Lost City of Gold” and “Transformers: The Last Knight”, will be stepping into Dina’s shoes.
Now, if you’re not familiar with Dina, she’s a key player in the Jackson community, and happens to be Ellie’s partner. Their relationship is like a rollercoaster, evolving and growing in all sorts of ways throughout the game. And, spoiler alert, Dina’s one of the strongest voices in Ellie’s life. But, does Ellie always heed that voice? Well, you’ll just have to sit tight and watch to find out. It’s gonna be a good one!
Who Will Play Jesse?
And then there’s Jesse, who will be played by none other than Young Mazino, the star from “Beef”. He’s the community’s pillar, always putting the needs of others before his own, even if it comes at a terrible cost. Introduced in “The Last of Us Part II”, Jesse’s got history with Ellie and Dina — he’s not just a friend; he’s also an ex-boyfriend.
“The Last of Us” Season 2 Returning Cast
Good news for “The Last of Us” fans — Season 2 is bringing back the familiar faces! Pascal and Ramsey, who wowed us in Season 1 and even scored some Emmy nods, are making a comeback. Since Joel and Ellie are making a return to Jackson, Gabriel Luna hinted that he’s back in the game as Tommy. And since Tommy’s hitched to Maria, chances are Rutina Wesley might be making a return too.
“The Last of Us” Season 2 Release Date
Unfortunately, we shouldn’t expect to see “The Last of Us” Season 2 hit screens any time soon. The writers’ strike threw a wrench into production, which led to HBO pushing the release date back a year. Filming hasn’t kicked off yet, which means we might have to wait until the end of 2024 or even early 2025 to see Season 2 hit our screens. It’s a bummer, but good things come to those who wait, right?
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It’s time for a second trip to Seattle in The Last of Us Part IIRemastered. Originally shipped in 2020, Part II amps up the scope of the series, as well as the violence. The result is a dynamic, stealthy survival horror romp that takes place decades after a world-ending pandemic. It can be a tough game to play, and Remastered also includes a new roguelike mode for those who want an even greater challenge. – Ari Notis Read More
