The second season of HBO’s The Last of Us is targeting a 2025 release.
During an event on Thursday, HBO CEO Casey Bloys announced that the second season will enter production in early 2024 before airing the following year, Deadline reports.
Production of the second season was held up by the Writers Guild of America strike, which ran from May until September.
“We’ve outlined all of season 2 and we’re ready to go as soon as the strike ends,” show co-creator Neil Druckmann told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview.
Over the course of nine episodes, the show’s debut season covered the events of The Last of Us, which was released at the tail end of the PS3 generation in 2013, and its downloadable expansion The Last of Us: Left Behind, which arrived the following year.
It has been a critical and commercial success, becoming one of HBO’s most streamed shows of all time and being nominated for 24 Emmy Awards.
HBO announced that The Last of Us had been renewed for a second season just two and a half weeks into the first season’s run, which concluded in March.
Last of Us showrunner Craig Mazin said in August that the series could run for three to five seasons, “but four seems like a good number.”
The Last of Us Part 2 was released for PS4 in 2020, and a remaster is widely believed to be in development at developer Naughty Dog.
Studio president Druckmann, who co-wrote and directed the game series and is also a writer and executive producer on the show, has previously appeared to hint at plans for a third Last of Us game, although it’s unclear if one is currently in development.
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