Summary

Collider’s Steven Weintraub talks with Gabriel Luna at CinemaCon 2026.

Luna discussing returning as Tommy, the Season 3 perspective shift, Craig Mazin’s scripts, and the filming timeline.

He also talks about joining Prime Video’s The Terminal List Season 2 as Freddy Strain.

HBO Max’s hit video game adaptation series, The Last of Us, is expected to return for Season 3 sometime next year. With the cast and crew currently in Vancouver filming, actor Gabriel Luna spoke with Collider’s Steven Weintraub at the NBCUniversal Emmy kick-off luncheon last week. Luna told us he’s reporting to set “soon,” and discussed the shift in the story’s perspective, as briefly glimpsed in the Season 2 finale, “Convergence.” In addition, he hints that this coming season brings a big change for its heroes, as well as discusses what fans can expect from his joining Prime Video’s The Terminal List for Season 2. From creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, The Last of Us Season 2 was packed with heartbreaking blows — something fans of the games have come to expect — as Ellie (Bella Ramsey) tore through Seattle on her mission for revenge. The season ends with Ellie, Tommy (Luna), and Dina’s (Isabela Merced) lives hanging in the balance between Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) and a gun, and a sneak peek at Season 3’s POV shift. In this interview, Luna discusses returning to set, how long he predicts Season 3 filming could take, and what he loves most about the fans of the game and series. He also reveals how he joined Prime Video’s The Terminal List over a Christmas dinner with Chris Pratt, the “fan favorite” character from Jack Carr’s books he’s playing, and discusses working alongside the professionals to bring the massive action set pieces to screen with authenticity.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 3 Flips the Script on Its Heroes

“Tommy becomes kind of like the boogeyman.”

Image via Warner Bros. Discovery

COLLIDER: You know that all of us at Collider are huge fans of The Last of Us. Where are you at in terms of filming? What do you want to say about Season 3? GABRIEL LUNA: We’re rolling cameras now. We’re up in Vancouver. I report pretty soon. It’s an interesting season. The fans of the games will know there’s a bit of a perspective shift, so our focus is on another one of our main characters, and it’s kind of fun. We’ve been heroes for two years, and then, as it happens in the game, Tommy becomes kind of like the boogeyman to these other people, and so it’s a really interesting time. But I’m really excited. About to go get to work, and let’s do it! How long are you filming for? LUNA: I don’t know. I mean, that depends. It’s HBO, and it’s a very large show, so you can say three or four months, you can say five months, and it can become… I get it. For the seasons, do they give you all the scripts in advance, or is it like each week you’re getting stuff? LUNA: I’m getting the scripts as we go. Craig [Mazin]’s process is his process. We yield to his pace. He’s just absolutely brilliant, as we know. Very prolific. He writes every letter of every word, so it comes in as Craig feels that it’s ready to be read. But I can say that it’s incredible. What I’ve read thus far is absolutely incredible.

You must have a lot of people who meet you on the street, because you have a specific look, who are fans of the show. LUNA: Well, I’m growing the look back right now, so it’s happening much more frequently than it had been in the previous few months. The facial hair is going strong right now. What do fans want to talk to you about with the show? Are there certain things, or is it like, “Hey, I just want to let you know I’m a fan of the show?” LUNA: The fans of this show are so in-tune and empathetic and family-oriented. So many fathers and daughters often come up to me, and in the case of Tommy, fathers and sons. It’s funny because it reminds me of the experience I had with Agents of SHIELD; people received the story as a family. So, it’s a lot of that. It’s a lot of really beautiful insight into strangers’ family dynamics and what it is to love someone, what it is to protect someone, what is to protect yourself against an impending doom at times. You know what I mean? But I really love the people who love this story. It is a hard story to stay with, in the sense of how much emotional investment one must contribute to it to ultimately reap the lessons of this story, but I love the people who love this story because it’s a hard one to see to the end.

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‘The Last of Us’ Season 4 Gets Apocalyptic Update as Season 3 Begins Filming

Season 3 will show things from Abby’s perspective.

‘The Terminal List’ Expands Jack Carr’s Universe in Season 2

Luna talks about stepping into the role of a fan favorite character from the books.

Taylor Kitsch as Ben Edwards, Chris Pratt as James Reece, and Constance Wu as Katie Buranek on the poster for ‘The Terminal List’Image via Prime Video

With The Terminal List, you’re on this upcoming season. LUNA: Yeah, we shot it in Toronto and Morocco. The show will premiere this year. I loved it. It was amazing. [Chris] Pratt is like family. He’s married to Arnold [Schwarzenegger]’s daughter, Katherine, and we actually kind of brokered this deal at a Christmas dinner one time, like three years ago. What can you tell us about your role on this? LUNA: I play Freddy Strain, who’s kind of a fan favorite of the books. The second novel is where Freddy is introduced. He is a former SEAL Team Six member. He now works as a green badger for the CIA. He’s an incredible, incredible character, and beloved for good reason. I just hope that I can rise to the occasion and do it justice because he’s really a great character. I really enjoyed my time there. One of the things about The Terminal List is that it has massive action set pieces. Did you get to get in on any of those and what was it actually like?

LUNA: No, it is massive, but we were also very economical in the way that we end up executing on those particular scenes. We’re also very fortunate to have Jared Shaw and Ray Mendoza, who directed Warfare with Alex Garland, one of our directors, and one of our EPs, and we have the real guys, the real frogmen. They’re helping us navigate through what that experience is and to do our best to achieve our 80/20 quotient that we establish for ourselves — it’s like 80% real, 20% Hollywood. Me, Chris, and the rest of the cast bring that 20%, but the boys, Jared and Ray, and all the true-to-life Navy SEALS bring a bunch of star experience. They bring it all to the table, and then we can pick out as we need to to try to bring an authentic experience to the audience of what that life is, to be a war fighter in that way, and to be the pinnacle of our servicemen and servicewomen, what they’re all about. We definitely woke up some people in the streets in Morocco one day with a few 50 caliber rounds being sent downrange. It’s pretty nuts.

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‘The Terminal List’s Chris Pratt Says “If You Don’t Like It, It’s Just Not for You” as the Universe Continues to Expand With ‘Dark Wolf’ Prequel

Pratt and Taylor Kitsch discuss epic action sequences and a Season 2 for both shows.

What do you think people are going to say at the end of the season? Will they be like, “Oh, I need another season immediately?” What are they going to feel emotionally? LUNA: Well, Jack Carr’s bibliography is extensive, and there are a lot of stories to be told around James Reece and his family and their lifetime in service of this country, and so there are many ways they can go with it. That was the great thing about the first season, and then, of course, the prequel that came out with Taylor [Kitsch] and Tom. Tom is in our show. Tom Hopper. A bunch of the cast there are joining us on the second season of The Terminal List. So, it’s a growing family, it’s a growing universe, and Jack’s got all of the source material for days to support whatever the appetite is for this. So, yeah, it’s just a matter of keeping the fire stoked, and the only way we do that is just tell the story of the books and tell it in the best way we possibly can. We’re thankful to Amazon Prime and everybody else who support the show, and Dave DiGilio, our showrunner, for putting it together. It’s a big one. It’s one of the bigger ones that that studio, MRC, actually makes, and it’s a lot. It’s a lot to undertake, and Dave does it with grace, and the whole team does it. I can’t wait until the show comes out. I can’t wait till people see it. The Terminal List Season 2 will premiere on Prime Video later this year. The Last of Us Season 3 is set to return to HBO Max in 2027.

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Directors

Craig Mazin, Peter Hoar, Jeremy Webb, Ali Abbasi, Mark Mylod, Stephen Williams, Jasmila Žbanić, Liza Johnson, Nina Lopez-Corrado

Writers

Neil Druckmann, Craig Mazin, Halley Wegryn Gross