One of the Big Names Behind ‘The Last of Us’ Is Leaving Ahead of Season 3

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Minor spoilers below.

We haven’t yet reached the last of The Last of Us. Ahead of the highly anticipated season 2 premiere in April 2025, HBO announced that the hit sci-fi series—based on the popular PlayStation video game franchise of the same name—has already been renewed for a third season.

The announcement didn’t come as a surprise. Co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann had spent months dropping hints that they would need multiple seasons to adapt the games The Last of Us: Part I and The Last of Us: Part II, and that Part II’s storyline, in particular, would stretch well beyond season 2. As Mazin told Deadline in 2024, “We don’t think that we’re going to be able to tell the story even within two seasons [2 and 3] because we’re taking our time to go down interesting pathways, which we did a little bit in season 1, too. Season 3 will be significantly larger. And indeed, the story may require season 4.” (Similarly, HBO executive Francesca Orsi told the outlet in February 2025 that “it’s looking like four seasons.”)

HBO

Even before these teases, there was little doubt the series would continue as long as necessary. Actress Bella Ramsey, who plays protagonist Ellie Williams, told ELLE in 2023 that she would play the character for as long as HBO wanted her. “There’s no limits for me,” Ramsey says. “They can do as many games as they like, as many series as they like, and I’ll be here, flying back out to Canada.” (Mazin also shared his enthusiasm with ELLE, adding that, “To get to the end of the story in the time that we need to take to get to the proper end would be awesome. If I got to work on a set with Bella Ramsey every day for the rest of my life, I’d be thrilled.”)

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However, major news soon arrived in July 2025, when fans learned that Druckmann would depart the HBO series in favor of his commitments with Naughty Dog, the game studio for which he serves as head. “I’ve made the difficult decision to step away from my creativeinvolvement in The Last of Us on HBO,” he said in a statement shared with press. “With work completed on season 2 and before any meaningful work starts on season 3, now is the right time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty Dog and its future projects, including writing and directing our exciting next game.” He reiterated that the show would, indeed, go on without him: “I look forward to HBO and PlayStation Productions continuing Ellie and Abby’s story next season.”

Here’s what we know so far about season 3.

What will season 3 of The Last of Us be about?

Season 3 will take a backwards time jump to “Seattle Day One,” depicting Abby’s story during the same time period that Ellie and Dina are searching for her in season 2. In a GQ interview published after the finale, Kaitlyn Dever, who plays Abby, said, “I think Craig [Mazin] is still trying to write the season. I have no idea what their plans are. Craig says [season 3] is even more intense than season 2, which I don’t know how…[But] that’s all he told me.”

In a May 2025 interview with Collider, Mazin responded to questions about the potential length of season 3, given that season 2 covers only a portion of the Part II plot.

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“I think there’s a decent chance that season 3 will be longer than season 2, just because the manner of that narrative and the opportunities it affords us are a little different,” he explained. “The thing about Joel’s death is that it’s so impactful. It’s such a narrative nuclear bomb that it’s hard to wander away from it [in season 2]. We can’t really take a break and move off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story.”

Mazin continued, “I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for season 3. I think we’ll have a little more room there. But certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome.”

It is also part of the original game narrative that the perspective shifts from Ellie to Abby, showcasing her backstory and perspective as someone traumatized by Joel’s actions in Part I. As the season 2 finale makes clear in its final moments, Abby’s saga will indeed enter the spotlight in season 3.

Who will be cast in season 3 of The Last of Us?

We can expect Ramsey to return as Ellie, as well as Dever as Abby and Isabela Merced as Dina. Whether or not Pedro Pascal will make an appearance in a flashback is as yet unclear. Other cast members likely to return include Gabriel Luna as Tommy, Spencer Lord as Owen, Danny Ramirez as Manny, Jeffrey Wright as Isaac, and Alanna Ubach as Hanrahan.

Has production started for season 3 of The Last of Us?

In an interview with Variety released May 4, 2025, actress Isabela Merced who plays Dina, discussed some production expectations. When asked if she knew when filming of season 3 would begin, Merced replied, “No, but I think it should be next year.”

This story will be updated.