You know a show is good when it gets renewed before its season starts, especially in this day and age. Sometimes, projects get cancelled before the program is finished; some don’t even get released despite being completed. But that isn't the case with HBO and Max's The Last of Us. After the success of the first season, there was no way there wouldn’t be a second season (which debuts on April 13, 2025). However, HBO has gone ahead and renewed it for a third season before the second has even begun. Once again, given the success of the show, it's not surprising.
That being said, getting greenlit for a third season leaves a lot of questions about the future of the show and the game. The Last of Us video game campaign - and its TV show adaptation - follows Joel as he takes Ellie across the country, hoping her immunity holds the key to a cure or vaccine for the cordyceps infection plaguing the world. At the end of the game - and the first season of the TV series - the operation that needed to be performed on Ellie to ultimately heal the world was also going to kill Ellie. Joel decides against it, despite this being Ellie’s wish. He later lies about what happened while she was on the operating table.
Season 2 of the HBO show is inspired by sequel gameThe Last of Us Part II, where the consequences of those actions come back to bite them.
The trailers for the second season teases a lot of what happens during the second game. So much so that it looks like the entire second campaign will be done by the season finale. However, there’s no guarantee that’s true. The previews released could already be teasing moments that will take place in the third season - if the creatives knew a renewal was on the horizon, perhaps they planned ahead.
The Last of Us Part II is a fairly long game with a lot of story to tell. Granted, a good chunk of the game is action that can be cut. The official podcast for the show explains that removing random fights from the game was necessary to tell a coherent tale and save time. That will certainly happen in season 2. Nevertheless, it would make sense that season 2 would be the entire campaign. What does that mean for season 3? The creative team could Game of Thrones viewers.
Neil Druckmann confirms that Intergalactic is currently a focus at Naughty Dog and says The Last of Us: Part III is not in development, as they feel Part II has a definitive ending
— Naughty Dog Central (@NaughtyNDC) April 9, 2025
Our thoughts: “He’s lying Dutch” 😅 pic.twitter.com/sUm6krYZ71
HBO’s Game of Thrones went beyond the books by writer George R. R. Martin. The same thing could happen with The Last of Us. The franchise is popular enough to continue beyond what's happened in the source material. There are twenty years of content between Outbreak Day and the beginning of the game and the show. Not to mention how the cults and resistances were created. The creative team could also go past the ending of the game and start something new. The HBO show is an adaptation after all.
In the video above, Neil Druckmann says that there is a possibility for a third game, but he treated the second one like it had a definitive ending. He also mentions that the adaptation for season 2 goes beyond a single season. Does that confirm that season 2 splits the second game’s campaign into two parts? No. It just means that this adaptation goes further. We’ll have to wait for season 2 to conclude to see where the third takes us.
The good news is that we now know that there is a third season to look forward to.
Stay tuned to Bam Smack Pow and their social media sites Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter for more news, opinions, and rumors about The Last of Us as they come out.