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Strap on your survival gear, because <\/span>The Last of Us<\/a><\/em>\u00a0will be back before we know it. Production on the hit HBO series’ second season gets underway in February with a handful of new characters set to join the zombie apocalypse with new tales to be told, and an anticipated make-good on one particularly heartbreaking storyline that fans of the video game are already dreading.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Season 2 will begin filming in Vancouver, British Columbia, following some delays due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year. With cameras soon to start rolling, a series of new casting announcements have been released for key players in the upcoming episodes, including that <\/span>Schitt’s Creek<\/span><\/em> star Catherine O’Hara is joining the show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The renewal of the video game adaptation series was previously announced on Jan. 27, 2023, two weeks after its series\u00a0premiere became the streamer’s second-highest debut ever, behind <\/span>Game of Thrones<\/span><\/em>. In July, the show’s first season received 24 Emmy nominations, including Best Drama Series. Fans are now eagerly awaiting what comes next.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “It still feels surreal to me that it’s going to go again,” <\/span>Bella Ramsey<\/a> told ET of the renewal news, adding, “I don’t want to go into it comparing it to the experience of the first season.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The beloved star and <\/span>GoT <\/span><\/em>alum added that\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>season 1 was “the best year of my life,” saying she’s been most appreciative of the fans who have supported her character’s LGBTQ identity (Ramsey herself identifies as non-binary, and uses any pronouns).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I have, it’s like a gay army,” Ramsey said. “That feels nice to just have that army behind me.”<\/span><\/p>\n Ramsey also added that she’s enjoyed hearing from fans of the\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>video game. “I love gamers’ reactions to the show,” she said. “That’s the thing that feels the most validating, is when gamers who are so invested in the game say, ‘This is so good and it lives up to all my expectations.’ That is the reaction that feels really, really cool.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Here’s everything we know about\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>season 2.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Which <\/span>The Last of Us<\/span><\/em> stars are returning for season 2?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Both Ramsey and <\/span>Pedro Pascal<\/a>\u00a0will return as Ellie and Joel, respectively.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A small group of fans during <\/span>The Last of Us<\/span><\/em> season 1 predicted that show creators\u00a0Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann would recast Ramsey’s character, Ellie, between the first and second seasons. In the game’s first and second installments, the character ages up five years. Their worries, however, were largely unfounded as HBO never indicated any plan to replace Ramsey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And while season 1 Ellie is only 14 years old, Ramsey is 20 in real life. As such, fans now seem confident that Ramsey will be able to portray the age jump rather seamlessly (and continue leading the show with her stellar performance).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Among the countless characters to meet their demise in the show’s first season, perhaps none were <\/span>as beloved<\/a> as <\/span>Nick Offerman<\/a> and <\/span>Murray Bartlett<\/a>‘s Bill and Frank. While no plans have been announced for the potential continuation of flashback stories, <\/span>Offerman recently <\/a>joked about\u00a0a musical spinoff for his and Bartlett’s characters when asked if he had plans to return to the series.<\/span><\/p>\n “It certainly has been pitched. I think we pitched a whole mini-series of a prequel of their lives before they met each other. It could be a musical. We’re not short on ideas,” Offerman told reporters after accepting his Creative Arts Emmy Award for\u00a0\u00a0Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.\u00a0“We’ll just we\u2019ll see what Craig [Mazin] and Neil [Druckmann] come up with.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Who are the new cast members?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n In early February, HBO revealed (via multiple reports) that Catherine O’Hara would be joining the cast as a guest star in an “undisclosed role.”\u00a0The <\/span>Schitt’s Creek<\/span><\/em> actress was the first guest star to be announced for season 2.<\/span><\/p>\n Back in January, a trio of stars were announced to join the series in season 2, including <\/span>Beef<\/em><\/a>‘s Young Mazino as Jesse. As reported by <\/span>Variety<\/em><\/a>, the character is said to be “a pillar of his community who puts everyone else\u2019s needs before his own, sometimes at terrible cost.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Isabela Merced joins as Dina, who is an ex-girlfriend of Jesse and a love interest for Ellie. “Dina is warm, brilliant, wild, funny, moral, dangerous and instantly lovable,” Mazin and Druckmann said of the character, per <\/span>Deadline<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Booksmart <\/span><\/em>alum\u00a0<\/span>Kaitlyn Dever<\/a>\u00a0landed the role of Abby — one of the most pivotal new characters of the upcoming season. According to a character description published by the <\/span>Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>, “Abby is\u00a0a skilled soldier whose black-and-white view of the world is challenged as she seeks vengeance for those she loved.”<\/span><\/p>\n Does\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>season 2 have a release date? <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n HBO has not yet announced a release date for\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>season 2, but\u00a0the network’s Drama Chief, Francesca Orsi, told\u00a0<\/span>Deadline<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/em>in May 2023 that she and her team had set a goal for “some time in 2025.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Production is confirmed to begin in February 2024, following the resolution of the SAG-AFTRA strike.<\/span><\/p>\n How did the WGA and SAG strike affect\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>season 2?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Show co-creator Mazin previously told <\/span>Deadline<\/em><\/a> his team “got pretty far actually” before the Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced its strike in early May 2023. “We were doing great,” he said, adding that season 2’s first episode script was finished prior to the strike.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “We know what the whole season is, and I was actually able to get to write and submit the first episode right before the deadline hit,” he continued. “So now I\u2019m just walking around kind of brain-writing, I guess, which I don\u2019t think is scabbing. I take walks and I think through the scenes because when the bell rings and this is over because the companies have finally come to their senses, I’m going to have to basically shoot myself out of a cannon because we really want to try and get this show on the air when it\u2019s supposed to be on the air.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In May, Orsi told\u00a0<\/span>Deadline\u00a0<\/span><\/em>it’s “too early to tell” exactly how the WGA strike would affect HBO’s rollout, but acknowledged her original schedule may have to shift. Her prediction also came before SAG-AFTRA members joined the picket lines in July, further delaying productions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “At this point, those shows that I’m looking to air wouldn’t necessarily be ready if this strike lasts six to nine months,” she said. “So yes, that’s a big question for us, but I think we’ll cross that road once we come to it.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Still, Mazin said there was hope for a 2025 release.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “We had a little more flexibility I think than normally just because we had to wait a little bit longer anyway to line up production with the weather. A lot of what we do is outside, and so we had a schedule that weirdly hasn’t been immediately impacted. But we’re getting pretty close; w\u0435 can’t keep our original start dates forever obviously,” he said. “If these strikes go much longer we inevitably will have to push and that hurts us, and it hurts the audience, and it hurts HBO. We all, everybody wants to get back to work; I think everybody that\u2019s actually doing the work, including the network people who are with us on the ground, I think everybody just wants to get this solved. So fingers crossed.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What will <\/span>The Last of Us<\/span><\/em> season 2 be about?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a> asserted in January that the end of season 1 would align with the entirety of the first\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us\u00a0<\/span><\/em>video game. Season 2 is expected to cover the game’s sequel,\u00a0<\/span>The Last of Us Part II,\u00a0<\/span><\/em>but cannot be described without spoilers.<\/span><\/p>\n “Who knows what’s going to happen in season 2?” Ramsey told ET. “I actually don’t know… I still don’t know what they’re hatching up.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n