bonds begin to fray We have a new teaser for The Last of Us S2 Abby: "It doesn't matter if you have a code like me. There are just some things everyone agrees are just wrong." Jennifer Ouellette Jan 7, 2025 11:23 am | 0 Kaitlyn Dever joins the cast as Abby, a vengeful soldier. Credit: YouTube/HBO Kaitlyn Dever joins the cast as Abby, a vengeful soldier. Credit: YouTube/HBO Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn more The second season of The Last of Uswill hit HBO and Max in April. HBO released a new one-minute teaser for the second season of its post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us during CES last night, along with a release date of April 2025. Based on developer Naughty Dog's hugely popular video game franchise, S2 is set five years after the events of the first season and finds the bond beginning to fray between plucky survivors Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) while introducing several new characters.(Spoilers for S1 below.)The series takes placein the 20-year aftermath of a deadly outbreak of mutant fungus (Cordyceps) that turns humans into monstrous zombie-like creatures (the Infected, or Clickers). The world has become a series of separate totalitarian quarantine zones and independent settlements, with a thriving black market and a rebel militia known as the Fireflies making life complicated for the survivors. Joel is a hardened smuggler tasked with escorting the teenaged Ellie across the devastated US, battling hostile forces and hordes of zombies, to a Fireflies unit outside the quarantine zone. Ellie is special: She is immune to the deadly fungus, and the hope is that her immunity holds the key to beating the disease.Over the course of the first season, we watched a reluctant Joel gradually come to love Ellie as his own daughter. That caused a problem in the shocking finale, when they finally arrived at their destination, only to discover the secret to her immunity to the Cordyceps fungus meant Ellie would have to die to find a cure. Ellie was willing to sacrifice herself, but once she was under anesthesia, Joel basically went berserk and killed all the hospital staff to save her lifeand lied to Ellie about it, claiming the staff were killed by raiders. So you know there are going to some repercussions in the second season.The official premise is succinct: "After five years of peace following the events of the first season, Joel and Ellies collective past catches up to them, drawing them into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind." The source material is The Last of Us Part II, although it's not clear from the teasers thus far just how closely the showrunners will hew to that game. But we should expect some grim happenings, as Ars Senior Editor Sam Axon observed last year: "Those of us who have played the game (or followed its controversies in gaming communities) know that non-gaming TV fans are probably not prepared for what's coming."Gabriel Luna and Rutina Wesley reprise their S1 roles as Joel's younger brother Tommy and his pregnant wife Maria, respectively. Joining the cast this year are Kaitlyn Dever as a vengeance-seeking solider named Abby; Young Mazino as Jesse; Isabela Merced as Dina, Jesse's ex and a romantic interest for Ellie; Danny Ramirez as a loyal soldier named Manny; Ariela Barer as a doctor named Mel; Tati Gabrielle as a military medic named Nora; Spencer Lord as Owen; and Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, who leads a militia (Wright played the same role in the video game).Catherine O-Hara will also appear in an as-yet-undisclosed role, although we saw her briefly in the teaser released last September acting as a therapist of sorts to Joel. That teaser largely focused on Joel's guilt over his murderous actions as his past begins to catch up with him. This latest teaser is more general in scope, revealing few plot points but giving us glimpses of our new characters: Abby weeping over a grave, Ellie and Dina slow-dancing (and then outrunning a horde of infected), and a brief glimpse of Isaac by a campfire.The Last of Us S2 will premiere on HBO and Max in April 2025. We're looking forward to this one.Jennifer OuelletteSenior WriterJennifer OuelletteSenior Writer Jennifer is a senior reporter at Ars Technica with a particular focus on where science meets culture, covering everything from physics and related interdisciplinary topics to her favorite films and TV series. Jennifer lives in Baltimore with her spouse, physicist Sean M. Carroll, and their two cats, Ariel and Caliban. 0 Comments