New details about The Last of Us Season 2 have been revealed via a new exclusive report from Entertainment Weekly, who sat down with the show’s creators to discuss what fans can expect when the new episodes start airing in April. Among the discussions about the story and characters was the news that cut content from the video game the second season is based on will be featured in the show. This new content will also be sure to be plenty dark and intense, which is in line with the overall more nihilistic tone of the video game sequel.
While the first season covered the entirety of the story of the original Last of Us game released in 2013, Season 2 of the show will only partially cover The Last of Us Part II, the controversial follow-up released on the PS4 in 2020. What was most interesting about HBO’s adaptation, developed by Chernobyl writer Craig Mazin and video game director Neil Druckmann, is that The Last of Us Season 1 expanded on characters only mentioned in the game or had entirely new ones that strengthened the themes and story of the show.
For Season 2, Neil Druckmann (writer and director of both Last of Us games) revealed that material once considered for Part II but ultimately cut out would be incorporated into the new season of the show, while also calling this new material “pretty brutal, but I’m very excited for people to see it.” An exciting aspect of video game adaptations of this caliber is not just television audiences discovering the characters, but also giving long-time fans of the video games all new material that provides a fresh angle to the story they’ve become familiar with.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2’s Darker Tone Is in Service of Its Characters

The Last of Us Part II, while subject to plenty of controversy and hateful rhetoric online because of leaks that Naughty Dog suffered during the development of the game, still managed to receive critical acclaim and sell 4 million units. Part II’s success proved that there was an audience for a darker story than what the previous game provided. The violent gameplay at the center of the series would be taken to new levels of intensity, making players feel empathetic for the NPCs that they were massacring, making the violence feel like it came at a cost.

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The series has a different advantage thanks to the medium in which it tells the story, and the “brutal” additions, as Neil Druckmann described them, are undoubtedly being put in further to drive the themes of the cycle of violence. Moreover, these changes are also made in service of veteran fans who have followed Joel and Ellie’s story for over twelve years since the first game was released to see how differently the live-action series tells the story, Druckmann tells EW:

“I think that’s part of the fun for people familiar with the game to see how we approached that challenge in the show. I will just say that we gave it a lot of thought and tried different things. There are some deviations of where we place things.”

Whatever new additions were originally intended for the game, whether the violent nature of the humans in the post-apocalypse or the mindless savagery of the infected, they are sure to elevate Joel and Ellie’s story and make viewers want to tune in week after week when The Last of Us Season 2 airs in April.