There’s a moment in The Last of Us Season 1 that seems to represent creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s modus operandi for the entire series. As we look over a destroyed Boston, while Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) take Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to a group known as the Fireflies, we’re presented with two paths. For those who have played the game, we know that one path leads this group to two collapsing skyscrapers in the distance, a treacherous trek that the series calls “the hard way.” Instead, HBO’s The Last of Us takes us down another path that we didn’t see in the games, demonstrating that sometimes, this story can change, evolve, and improve upon what we’ve already seen to get to an endpoint, even if the journey isn’t exactly the same.
While the first game is a fairly straightforward narrative that made perfect sense for an adaptation, the second game, The Last of Us: Part II, is a story that felt like it couldn’t exist with the same power in another medium. There are years of flashbacks, multiple changing viewpoints, and some of the most tragic and difficult losses you’ve ever had to reckon with in a video game. It should be a logistical nightmare for any TV series, and yet, with Season 2, Mazin and Druckmann prove once again why HBO’s The Last of Us is the strongest video game adaptation ever. At times, the show might deviate from the path, but it all works, even heightening and improving a phenomenal season of television that does justice to arguably the best story in video game history.
What Is ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 About?

When we last left Joel and Ellie, Joel was lying straight to Ellie’s face, telling her that their journey to find the Fireflies in Salt Lake City was a futile effort, when, in reality, he killed the Fireflies to save Ellie’s life. As we saw in the final moments of Season 1, Ellie accepts Joel’s lie, yet it’s unclear if she believes it or sees right through it. Season 2 jumps forward five years, with Joel and Ellie having become part of the Jackson community, which is run by his younger brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and his wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley). Joel has returned to some semblance of his pre-outbreak life, working on building new homes for the people of Jackson, while Ellie has been patrolling outside the town alongside Jesse (Young Mazino), as well as his ex, Dina (Isabela Merced).
Despite their seemingly idyllic surroundings, there’s something off about Joel and Ellie’s relationship. Joel has been acting like a father to Ellie — again, a reminder of the life he once had before the outbreak — and since Ellie is now nineteen, he chalks up their problems to her simply being a teenager. Yet even Joel’s therapist, Gail (Catherine O’Hara), knows it’s something deeper than that, even if he won’t share the truth. Meanwhile, Ellie has tried to break out from Joel’s protective nature, often trying to stay away from conversations about him with her friends. To make matters worse, we also flash back to a character named Abby (Kaityn Dever), one of the survivors of Joel’s attack on the Salt Lake City Fireflies, who swore vengeance against him five years ago. Joel’s decisions at the end of Season 1 are affecting not only him but those around him in this heartbreaking and difficult story about anger, vengeance, the positives and negatives of love, and the things we do to justify our actions.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Brilliantly Improves on the Video Game

Image via HBO

One of the biggest surprises about this second season is just how well the game’s story fits into another format. Without getting into the exact how, Season 2 doesn’t deviate as much as one might expect. It has reverence for its source material, and fans of the game won’t be disappointed at all by how this story is handled. However, Season 2 also takes some ingenious swings with both its changes and its adaptation of important story moments. With Season 1, several segments were so good in the game that the series basically kept them word-for-word, whether in episodes like “Left Behind” or the finale’s closing minutes. While some scenes are almost directly plucked from The Last of Us: Part II, Season 2 also takes great moments and somehow makes them even more powerful.
It wouldn’t necessarily be accurate to call these major changes; instead, they’re slight evolutions that hit even harder because of their shifts. For instance, the choice of who experiences certain moments or how a bond might grow all add up to tweaks that might seem unnecessary at first, but build into really lovely changes. Even a quick cut or the way a camera lingers on a moment transforms the sequence that we know from the games. In one particular scene, the season takes two major sequences from the game and merges them into one, a tremendous choice that splendidly improves moments that initially seemed too perfect to change. Stakes grow, relationships change, and scenes might differ, but at the end of the journey, the impact hits just as hard, if not harder.
Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross, and Craig Mazin Do Great Things With ‘The Last of Us’ in Season 2

Image via HBO

While Druckmann and Mazin wrote all of Season 1, Halley Gross, co-writer of The Last of Us: Part II, joins the writing staff for Season 2, and no one knows this story better than this trio. In writing this season, Druckmann, Mazin, and Gross maximize familiar anger, pain, and emotion to make them feel new again while pulling the rug out from under knowledgeable fans in fascinating and surprising ways. This is a season full of heart-wrenching and dark moments, but the narrative never becomes overwhelmed by its inherently bleak nature. To quote the first season, when you’re lost in the darkness, look for the light, and Season 2 does that beautifully, finding the love and heart at the center of the story, even if those same aspects can lead to even more pain.
Season 2 also feels far grander in scope than what Season 1 attempted, while also far more introspective and narrowed in focus. The journey before took viewers on a path with deviations, where time was spent with other characters to offer an understanding of the impact that love could have on two people, as with the remarkable “Long, Long Time” episode. But Season 2, more often than not, sticks to a small core of characters, fleshing them out and adding more dimension to them with each episode. While the scale of this story has grown, we’re forced to reckon with the decisions these characters have made and forced to live with these choices alongside them. By the end of the season, we know the characters on a much deeper level than we did before.
Mazin, Druckmann, and Peter Hoar all return to direct the second season, alongside Succession’s Mark Mylod, Loki’s Kate Herron, Lost’s Stephen Williams, and Perry Mason’s Nina Lopez-Corrado. Without spoiling what happens, each director is matched beautifully with subject matter they’ve handled in their previous work, which elevates each installment immensely. However, perhaps the most impressive work here comes from Druckmann, who directs the penultimate episode, and brings to life some truly memorable moments from his game in stunning fashion. It quite possibly could be the best episode of the series so far, as well as one of the best television episodes of 2025.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2 Features an Incredible Cast, Particularly Bella Ramsey

Across the board, the cast of The Last of Us completely knocks Season 2 out of the park. After the events of Season 1, there’s a weight that now sits on Joel’s shoulders, given how his choice altered his relationship with Ellie, and regardless of your thoughts on his decision last season, it’s truly tragic to watch. Pascal gives the best performance of his career so far in Season 2, gracefully layered, moving, and often saying as much with a tearful look as he could if he were able to find the right words.
But this is without a doubt Bella Ramsey’s season, and they shoulder the demands of this story superbly. Ellie has grown into quite the badass since we last saw her, and as she becomes an adult, she begins to make decisions that will completely alter who she is. Ramsey made Ellie their own in Season 1, but this season is on another level entirely, given what must have been an emotionally draining collection of episodes. Ramsey meets this season’s challenges head-on and, in doing so, once again proves that they’re an extraordinary talent, bringing this story to life in ways that seemed almost impossible in another medium.

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The show has made some distinctive changes ahead of Season 2.

Season 2 also brings an entirely new cast of characters into the mix, but by the end of the first episode, they’re already a perfect fit — with just the right actors to portray them. Mazino nails Jesse’s selfless, upright character while also being an important shoulder to lean on when the time comes. O’Hara’s Gail is a nice addition to the story, allowing Joel to explore his pain but also emphasizing the impact of his Season 1 choices. Dever is fantastic as Abby, bringing a very understandable rage to this story alongside moments that highlight the toll that anger and vengeance can take on a person. Yet the show’s best new addition is Isabela Merced as Dina, who quite often is the light that shines through Ellie’s darkness. The relationship between Ellie and Dina is smartly changed ever so slightly, but it allows their dynamic to have even more importance when it matters most. Merced nails that lightness that Ellie needs in her life, while also showing how much there is to lose, and through Merced, it’s a character that we are immediately drawn to and fall for.
The Last of Us Season 2 has its own unique set of challenges that the first season never had to deal with, and yet the story has never been better in Druckmann and Mazin’s capable hands. Not only are they adapting what’s maybe the greatest video game story, but they’re also improving and trying out new things that only make the narrative even more complex and difficult to wrestle with. If the first season of The Last of Us proved that this was the best video game adaptation ever, Season 2 reinforces that further while also creating one of 2025’s best seasons of TV.
The Last of Us Season 2 premieres April 13 on HBO and Max, with new episodes airing on Sundays.

Custom Image By Yailin Chacon

Custom Image By Yailin Chacon

The Last Of Us

The Last of Us Season 2 expands and builds on an already impressive world, bringing a difficult narrative to life in brilliant ways.

Release Date

January 15, 2023

Network

HBO Max

Showrunner

Craig Mazin

Directors

Craig Mazin

Pros & Cons

Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin have made slight, but ingenious updates to what is already the best video game story ever told.
The entire cast, especially Bella Ramsey, are superb across the board.
Season 2 structurally had a lot to navigate and does so extremely well.
This season proves that The Last of Us is the best video game adaptation we’ve seen so far.